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Trade and Industry Department The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
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Press Release

Hong Kong to participate in negotiations on trade in services agreement among some WTO members
Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Hong Kong shall formally participate in the negotiations on a trade in services agreement (TISA), which is also known as the Plurilateral Services Agreement, among some World Trade Organization (WTO) members in mid-2013, a Government spokesperson announced today (May 28).

Participation in the TISA would allow Hong Kong to strengthen trade and economic ties with other economies and could provide our traders with more business opportunities in many of our major trading partners as well as some relatively new markets.

The other participating economies of the TISA as a whole account for around 50 per cent of Hong Kong's services trade. In the group, eight are among our top 10 services trading partners.

The TISA will be a high-ambition and comprehensive agreement with broad participation that could be multilateralised in the future. In addition to a schedule of commitments covering market access issues, new and enhanced disciplines to liberalise trade in services would also be covered in the negotiations.

To assist the Government in formulating Hong Kong's overall position in the TISA negotiations, a consultation document has been uploaded to the Trade and Industry Department website, www.tid.gov.hk. Interested parties are invited to put forward their views and suggestions on this subject by June 18. Feedback can be sent to the Trade and Industry Department by mail (Multilateral Division, 17/F, Trade and Industry Department Tower, 700 Nathan Road, Kowloon), fax (2390 7479/2789 2491) or email (mdiv1@tid.gov.hk).

As of April 2013, the participating economies of the TISA comprise 22 WTO members, namely Australia, Canada, Chile, Chinese Taipei, Colombia, Costa Rica, the European Union, Hong Kong, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States.

Ends