Summary

The financial services talks underway in Geneva are a major element in the World Trade Organization's "Doha Round" of multilateral trade negotiations. The aim of the talks is to extend the 1997 WTO Agreement on Financial Services, the first international agreement on trade in this key sector. The financial services industry has significant ambitions for the new round in terms of enhanced market access commitments and the strengthening of disciplines on the procedures by which financial services are regulated domestically. However, there are many inbuilt tensions in the round - political as well as commercial. This will complicate, and may frustrate, ambitions for a significant outcome in the financial services sector. While many countries understand the imperative of continued financial services reform, there are potential conflicts with other negotiating areas and in the approaches being pursued by different WTO members, especially developing countries.

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The new round, involving more than 150 countries, was launched in November 2001 and is due to conclude in January 2005. It has a broad agenda, of which services are just one part. Nevertheless, financial services will be a key sector in the talks, with industry calling for greater market opening, securing of national treatment conditions to a greater extent than was achieved in 1997, and commitments aimed at improving regulatory environments around the world.