§ Mr. ChallenTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what progress has been made in the GATS negotiations with ensuring that impact assessments are made on the liberalisation of trade. [91352]
§ Ms HewittThe negotiating guidelines and procedures drawn up by WTO members for the current GATS negotiations call for impact assessment to be an on-going activity of the Council, with the negotiations adjusted in the light of the results of the assessment.
In March 2002, the Services Council held a two-day symposium devoted to impact assessment. All the papers tabled for that symposium are publicly available on the WTO website at http://www.wto.org/english/tratop—e/serv—e/symp—assessment—serv—march02—e.htm.