Chamber and committees

The regulation of international trade is a reserved matter and the lead on WTO and General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) negotiations is taken by the UK Government. Any requests for liberalisation will take place, if at all, at member state, not at Scottish Executive level. However, it is the UK Government's view that public services are excluded from GATS and in any event WTO members have the right to choose in which sectors and to what extent they want to make commitments.

No general assessment has been made of the implications of the ruling but we remain in close contact with our counterparts in the other UK administrations on this issue.

The UK position is that GATS will not apply to state-provided school education. There will, therefore, be no effects on such education in the UK following finalisation of the GATS agreement in January 2005.

Article 1.3 of the General Agreement on Trade in Services covers the issue. No World Trade Organisation member has sought to challenge the interpretation that this excludes public services from the scope of the agreement.

The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) applies to measures affecting trade in services taken by central, regional or local governments and authorities and by non-governmental bodies in the exercise of powers delegated by such governments and authorities. Progressive liberalisation under the GATS concerns the reduction or elimination of the adverse effects on trade in services of such measures as a means of providing effective market access for foreign service suppliers. Requests for liberalisation by World Trade Organisation members do not seek the privatisation of state supplied public services. The GATS recognises the right of member governments to regulate and to introduce new regulations on the supply of services to meet national policy objectives.

The regulation of international trade is a reserved matter. However, the Executive continues to be in regular contact with the Department of Trade and Industry and other UK Government Departments regarding the General Agreement on Trade in Services.

The Department for Trade and Industry (DTI) is currently conducting a public UK-wide consultation exercise which seeks views from interested parties on all aspects of the current round of General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) negotiations. The consultation paper was produced with input from the Scottish Executive and the deadline for responses is 3 January 2003. The Scottish Executive continues to be in close contact with representative bodies from the tertiary education sector in Scotland. We have encouraged these bodies and other interested parties to provide an input to the DTI consultation process in order to highlight any specific concerns which they may have around the potential impact of GATS on education services. The results of the DTI consultation will highlight any issues of concern and potential benefits of further liberalisation under GATS. The Scottish Executive will continue to be involved with this process and provide input as appropriate.

The GATS negotiations are taking place at UK level and the Department of Trade and Industry has the lead. The Scottish Executive continues to be in regular contact with UK Departments about these negotiations and how they might impact on its responsibilities. However, the UK position is that the public services are excluded from the GATS. No WTO member has sought to challenge that interpretation.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-32594 today. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

The regulation of international trade is a reserved matter. However, the Executive continues to be in regular contact with the Department of Trade and Industry on trade issues.