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Ministers
decide to recommend that the Council for Trade in Services at its
first meeting adopt the decision set out below.
The
Council for Trade in Services,
Recognizing
the impact of regulatory measures relating to professional
qualifications, technical standards and licensing on the expansion of
trade in professional services;
Desiring
to establish multilateral disciplines with a view to ensuring that,
when specific commitments are undertaken, such regulatory measures do
not constitute unnecessary barriers to the supply of professional
services;
Decides
as follows:
1.
The work programme foreseen in paragraph 4 of Article VI
on Domestic Regulation should be put into effect immediately. To this end, a Working Party on Professional Services shall be
established to examine and report, with recommendations, on the
disciplines necessary to ensure that measures relating to
qualification requirements and procedures, technical standards and
licensing requirements in the field of professional services do not
constitute unnecessary barriers to trade.
2.
As a matter of priority, the Working Party shall make
recommendations for the elaboration of multilateral disciplines in the
accountancy sector, so as to give operational effect to specific
commitments. In making
these recommendations, the Working Party shall concentrate on:
(a) developing multilateral disciplines relating to market access
so as to ensure that domestic regulatory requirements are: (i) based on objective and transparent criteria, such as competence
and the ability to supply the service; (ii) not more
burdensome than necessary to ensure the quality of the service,
thereby facilitating the effective liberalization of accountancy
services;
(b) the use of international standards and, in doing so, it shall
encourage the cooperation with the relevant international
organizations as defined under paragraph 5(b) of Article VI, so
as to give full effect to paragraph 5 of Article VII;
(c) facilitating the effective application of paragraph 6 of
Article VI of the Agreement by establishing guidelines for the
recognition of qualifications.
In
elaborating these disciplines, the Working Party shall take account of
the importance of the governmental and non-governmental bodies
regulating professional services.
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