Permanent representative to the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland, Ambassador Trevor Clarke has been appointed Chair of the Council for Trade in Services in the WTO for one year.

The general mandate for this Council is to oversee the existing rules on services and to manage negotiations for new rules. The Council is open to all WTO members and currently oversees four subsidiary bodies namely the Committee on Financial Services, the Committee on Specific Commitments, the Working Party on Domestic Regulation and the Working party on General Agreement on Trade in Services Rules.

The agenda for services is critical in the WTO negotiations. As Pascal Lamy has indicated there is a need to work assiduously towards the speeding up of these negotiations particularly as they relate to the submission of services offers. Liberalization in services is thought of as particularly important to developing countries especially as this relates to mode 4 (movement of natural persons).