Introduction

This chapter looks at practical aspects of managing the WTO services negotiation, and how different negotiating approaches can affect these. It makes some observations about the experience of New Zealand, a small but active WTO Member managing a complex negotiation from a long distance and with modest resources, in relation to the two main negotiating approaches it has encountered to date during the Doha Round negotiations on trade in services. It examines, from an individual negotiator's viewpoint, the costs and benefits arising from the bilateral and plurilateral approaches and their impact on the negotiating positions and resourcing decisions New Zealand has taken during the negotiation to date. It also looks very briefly at New Zealand's reaction to the attempt to establish numerical targeting as a core negotiating approach. Finally, it moves to some tentative conclusions about the merits of the various approaches and their effect on the ability of delegations like New Zealand to achieve their negotiating objectives.

New Zealand's approach to the WTO services negotiations: Objectives and resourcing

While principally known as an exporter of agricultural products, trade in services is an increasingly important component of New Zealand's overall export profile. Approximately 66 per cent of GDP is generated by the services sector, and exports of services have expanded in recent years to 28 per cent of total exports. Tourism is New Zealand's biggest services export (and indeed most significant export overall), followed by audio-visual services, education, professional services, business services and environmental services.