home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Shareware Overload Trio 2
/
Shareware Overload Trio Volume 2 (Chestnut CD-ROM).ISO
/
dir33
/
gatt.zip
/
GATT3_7E.TXT
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1994-01-11
|
11KB
|
224 lines
UNDERSTANDING ON COMMITMENTS IN FINANCIAL SERVICES
Participants in the Uruguay Round have been enabled to take on
specific commitments with respect to Financial Services under the General
Agreement on Trade in Services on the basis of an alternative approach to
that covered by the provisions of Part III of the Agreement. It was agreed
that this approach could be applied subject to the following understanding:
- it does not conflict with the provisions of the Agreement;
- it does not prejudice the right of any Member to schedule its
specific commitments in accordance with the approach under Part
III of the Agreement;
- resulting specific commitments shall apply on a
most-favoured-nation basis;
- no presumption has been created as to the degree of
liberalization to which a Member is committing itself under the
Agreement.
Interested Members, on the basis of negotiations, and subject to
conditions and qualifications where specified, have inscribed in their
schedule specific commitments conforming to the approach set out below.
Standstill
Any conditions, limitations and qualifications to the commitments
noted below shall be limited to existing non-conforming measures.
Market Access
Monopoly Rights
1. In addition to Article VIII of the Agreement, the following shall
apply:
Each Member shall list in its schedule pertaining to financial
services existing monopoly rights and shall endeavour to eliminate
them or reduce their scope. Notwithstanding paragraph 1.2 of the
Annex on Financial Services, this paragraph applies to the activities
referred to in sub-paragraph 1.2.3 of the Annex.
Financial Services purchased by Public Entities
2. Notwithstanding Article XIII of the Agreement, each Member shall
ensure that financial service suppliers of any other Member established in
its territory are accorded most-favoured-nation treatment and national
treatment as regards the purchase or acquisition of financial services by
public entities of the Member in its territory.
Cross-border Trade
3. Each Member shall permit non-resident suppliers of financial services
to supply, as a principal, through an intermediary or as an intermediary,
and under terms and conditions that accord national treatment, the following
services:
(a) insurance of risks relating to:
(i) maritime shipping and commercial aviation and space
launching and freight (including satellites), with such
insurance to cover any or all of the following: the goods
being transported, the vehicle transporting the goods and
any liability arising therefrom; and
(ii) goods in international transit;
(b) reinsurance and retrocession and the services auxiliary to
insurance as referred to in sub-paragraph 5.1(d) of the Annex;
(c) provision and transfer of financial information and financial
data processing as referred to in sub-paragraph 5.1(o) of the
Annex and advisory and other auxiliary services, excluding
intermediation, relating to banking and other financial services
as referred to in sub-paragraph 5.1(p) of the Annex.
4. Each Member shall permit its residents to purchase in the territory of
any other Member the financial services indicated in:
(a) sub-paragraph 3(a);
(b) sub-paragraph 3(b); and
(c) sub-paragraphs 5.1(e) to (p) of the Annex.
Commercial Presence
5. Each Member shall grant financial service suppliers of any other
Member the right to establish or expand within its territory, including
through the acquisition of existing enterprises, a commercial presence.
6. A Member may impose terms, conditions and procedures for authorization
of the establishment and expansion of a commercial presence in so far as
they do not circumvent the Member's obligation under paragraph 5 and they
are consistent with the other obligations of this Agreement.
New Financial Services
7. A Member shall permit financial service suppliers of any other Member
established in its territory to offer in its territory any new financial
service.
Transfers of Information and Processing of Information
8. No Member shall take measures that prevent transfers of information or
the processing of financial information, including transfers of data by
electronic means, or that, subject to importation rules consistent with
international agreements, prevent transfers of equipment, where such
transfers of information, processing of financial information or transfers
of equipment are necessary for the conduct of the ordinary business of a
financial service supplier. Nothing in this paragraph restricts the right
of a Member to protect personal data, personal privacy and the
confidentiality of individual records and accounts so long as such right is
not used to circumvent the provisions of the Agreement.
Temporary Entry of Personnel
9. (a) Each Member shall permit temporary entry into its territory of
the following personnel of a financial service supplier of any
other Member that is establishing or has established a commercial
presence in the territory of the Member:
(i) senior managerial personnel possessing proprietary
information essential to the establishment, control and
operation of the services of the financial service
supplier; and
(ii) specialists in the operation of the financial service
supplier.
(b) Each Member shall permit, subject to the availability of
qualified personnel in its territory, temporary entry into its
territory of the following personnel associated with a commercial
presence of a financial service supplier of any other Member:
(i) specialists in computer services, telecommunication
services and accounts of the financial service supplier;
and
(ii) actuarial and legal specialists.
Non-discriminatory Measures
10. Each Member shall endeavour to remove or to limit any significant
adverse effects on financial service suppliers of any other Member of:
(a) non-discriminatory measures that prevent financial service
suppliers from offering in the Member's territory, in the form
determined by the Member, all the financial services permitted by
the Member;
(b) non-discriminatory measures that limit the expansion of the
activities of financial service suppliers into the entire
territory of the Member;
(c) measures of a Member, when such a Member applies the same
measures to the supply of both banking and securities services,
and a financial service supplier of any other Member concentrates
its activities in the provision of securities services; and
(d) other measures that, although respecting the provisions of this
Agreement, affect adversely the ability of financial service
suppliers of any other Member to operate, compete or enter the
Member's market;
provided that any action taken under this paragraph would not unfairly
discriminate against financial service suppliers of the Member taking
such action.
11. With respect to the non-discriminatory measures referred to in
sub-paragraphs 10(a) and (b), a Member shall endeavour not to limit or
restrict the present degree of market opportunities nor the benefits already
enjoyed by financial service suppliers of all other Members as a class in
the territory of the Member, provided that this commitment does not result
in unfair discrimination against financial service suppliers of the Member
applying such measures.
National Treatment
1. Under terms and conditions that accord national treatment, each Member
shall grant to financial service suppliers of any other Member established
in its territory access to payment and clearing systems operated by public
entities, and to official funding and refinancing facilities available in
the normal course of ordinary business. This paragraph is not intended to
confer access to the Member's lender of last resort facilities.
2. When membership or participation in, or access to, any self-regulatory
body, securities or futures exchange or market, clearing agency, or any
other organization or association, is required by a Member in order for
financial service suppliers of any other Member to supply financial services
on an equal basis with financial service suppliers of the Member, or when
the Member provides directly or indirectly such entities, privileges or
advantages in supplying financial services, the Member shall ensure that
such entities accord national treatment to financial service suppliers of
any other Member resident in the territory of the Member.
Definitions
For the purposes of this approach:
1. A non-resident supplier of financial services is a financial service
supplier of a Member which supplies a financial service into the territory
of another Member from an establishment located in the territory of another
Member, regardless of whether such a financial service supplier has or has
not a commercial presence in the territory of the Member in which the
financial service is supplied.
2. "Commercial presence" means an enterprise within a Member's territory
for the supply of financial services and includes wholly- or partly-owned
subsidiaries, joint ventures, partnerships, sole proprietorships,
franchising operations, branches, agencies, representative offices or other
organizations.
3. A new financial service is a service of a financial nature, including
services related to existing and new products or the manner in which a
product is delivered, that is not supplied by any financial service supplier
in the territory of a particular Member but which is supplied in the
territory of another Member.