Box 2: The trial balloon of the Тcomplementary approachУ

It can be used, among others, as a tactical tool to assess the position of the other parties, their Тbottom lineУ, as well as to make proposals that will not be taken on board at present but can serve as reference for future discussions. Several observers consider as a Тtrial balloonУ the proposal made by the EU just before the start of the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference in 2005 to change radically the philosophy of the multilateral services negotiations.

While all delegations were in the last phase of the preparatory work for the Conference, the EU put on the table a proposal to accelerate the pace of the services negotiations that the Europeans were finding too slow. This proposal, known as Тcomplementary approachУ or ТbenchmarkingУ, was a revolution compared to the existing functioning of the services negotiations. It was putting aside the principle of requests and offers that had been driving services negotiations since 1995, and replacing it with an obligation of commitments with a minimum ТqualityУ and ТquantityУ and with a list of specific services sectors where all countries would have to make commitments. In other terms, the EU wanted to replace the "positive list" approach by a "negative list" approach[14]. This proposal was strongly rejected by most developing countries, as going against the spirit and principles of the GATS[15]. Furthermore, these countries did not appreciate that the proposal was presented only a few weeks before the start of the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference, not giving the DCs the necessary time to assess thoroughly the impact and implications of such a change.

But the EU had an interest in using this Тtrial balloonУ. Either its proposal was completely or partially accepted, or the EU was removing its demand but presenting it as a concession made to the other parties, and asking for concessions in return. Finally, it was giving the EU the possibility to see what the reaction was, and possibly come back on the issue at a later negotiating stage.

Source: Author

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