Arpita Mukherjee Ramneet Goswami January 2009 - icrier

(UNCPC) for the purpose of negotiations. The WTO Services Sectoral Classification List
(known as “W/120”) covered 12 service sectors and over 150 sub-sectors. However, it does
not have a separate comprehensive category for energy services. Important energy services
(transport, distribution, construction, consulting, engineering, etc.) are covered by the
respective horizontal categories, while some energy-related services are listed as separate
sub-sectors. For instance, services incidental to mining and services incidental to energy
distribution are classified under ‘Other Business Services’, and pipeline transportation is
covered under ‘Transport services’. One of the reasons for the poor coverage of energy
services in the W/120 is that the UNCPC, from which it is drawn, also does not list energy
services as a separate category. However, under each broad category, there is a corresponding
CPC number for energy services. For instance, CPC 632 relates to non-food retailing services
under which CPC 63297 covers retail sales of fuel oil, bottled gas, coal and wood. Given the
complexities of classification, countries have to be careful in scheduling commitments. It is
also important to note that after the Uruguay Round, the coverage of energy services in the
UNCPC has undergone changes in line with developments in this sector. For instance, in
CPC Version 1.0, new services, such as electricity distribution services (69110) and gas
distribution services through mains (69120), have been included.
Given the evolutionary nature of this sector and its inadequate coverage in the W/120,
classification of this sector has been widely debated since the beginning of the Doha Round.
The debate largely centered around two issues: (a) whether energy services should be
classified as one sector or should different parts of it be classified under relevant sectors
(transport, distribution, etc.), and (b) what constitutes a comprehensive coverage of this
sector. A number of negotiating proposals submitted to the WTO (for instance, by the United
States of America 4 , European Community 5 , Japan 6 , Cuba 7 and Venezuela 8 ) have raised the
classification issue. Some proposals, for instance, that of the EC, USA and Venezuela,
provided various alternative classifications of energy services for the purpose of discussion
and consultation in the WTO.
In the initial and revised offers, while making commitments, countries have not
classified energy as a separate sector. In the plurilateral request, the requesting countries
provided a comprehensive coverage of the sector. Based on this and W/120, the coverage of
energy services is shown in Table 1.1.
Table 1.1: Coverage of Energy Services
W/120 CPC No. Description
1.A.e 8672 Engineering services
1.A.f 8673 Integrated engineering services
1.C.a 85103 Research and experimental development services on natural
sciences and engineering and technology for casting, metal,
machinery, electricity, communications, vessels, aircraft,
civil engineering, construction, information, etc.
1.F.c 86509 Management consulting services
1.F.d 86601 Services related to management consulting
1.F.e 8676 (partial) Technical testing and analysis services
4 WTO (18 December 2000).
5 WTO (23 March 2001).
6 WTO (4 October 2001).
7 WTO (22 March 2002).
8 WTO (29 March 2001), (15 October 2001), and (4 June 2003).
3