World Trade
Organization RESTRICTED S/WPGR/W/41
3 March 2003 (03-1234) Working Party on GATS Rules Original: English

Communication from the European Communities
and their Member States

Scope for Emergency Safeguard Measures (ESM) in the GATS

The following communication is circulated at the request of the European Communities and their Member States, to Members of the Working Party on GATS Rules.
Article X of GATS expressly refers to emergency safeguard measures
A safeguard measure that is in conformity with the wording and spirit of Article X of GATS needs to be based on a situation of emergency, which is characterised by its extraordinary nature and intended to deal with unforeseen developments.
Most of them, whether they directly refer to feasibility and desirability or are made without prejudice to that question, have identified a number of issues that show the difficulties for the application of ESM in the GATS (legal certainty of commitments, modal application, protection of acquired rights, applicability of the principle of non-discrimination,…).
in case they exist, of concrete examples of emergency situations in the services area that are not already addressed by GATS provisions, and
The demonstration that an ESM would be feasible and desirable to deal with the identified situations (i.
that the difficulties and concerns that have been raised in respect of ESM can be overcome in practice).