§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will report on the outcome of the Foreign Affairs Council held in Geneva on 30 June. [36166]
§ Mr. David DavisA Foreign Affairs Council was called at short notice in Geneva on 30 June to consider how the Community should respond to developments in the final stages of negotiations in the World Trade Organisation on the liberalisation of financial services. My hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Trade and Technology represented the United Kingdom.
The Council noted with regret that the WTO was unable to conclude an agreement containing a high degree of commitments to multilateral and non-discriminatory liberalisation on trade in financial services and expressed concern about the position taken by the US Government in the final stages of the negotiations. The Council agreed that European Union negotiators should support the extension of the deadline for completion of the negotiations on both financial services and the movement of persons until 28 July 1995.
The Council agreed that the Community and its member states should work during this extra period to achieve maximum liberalisation on a multilateral and non-discriminatory basis, thus preserving the benefits of the great efforts made in earlier rounds of the negotiations, and called on other parties to work for the same objective.
The Council discussed how best to achieve this objective and agreed to return to the matter at its meeting in Brussels on 17 July 1995.