The Joint Standing Committee on Treaties has recommended the Australian Government ratifies the Joint Initiative on Services Domestic Regulation (JI-SDR).
Committee Chair, Mr Josh Wilson MP said, “the JI-SDR is a plurilateral agreement negotiated between 69 Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) that contains a range of rules that would potentially increase the transparency and predictability of the regulatory environment in Australia’s services export markets”.
The JI-SDR establishes best practice requirements for the authorisation processes that enable service exports. Provisions in the JI-SDR relate to a range of areas including transparency in fees and procedures, efficient processing of applications, evaluation based on clear and objective criteria, reasonable access to examinations where required, and the acceptance of electronic documents.
The JI-SDR would provide simple, transparent, fair, and user-friendly global rules to facilitate trade in services. “It is notable”, Mr Wilson said, “that because Australia has been convinced of this logic for some time, our regulatory practice already complies with these new rules, but of course Australian companies stand to benefit by their wider adoption”.
The Committee agreed that notwithstanding some concern about the way such plurilateral agreements sit alongside the WTO, the JI-SDR was likely to reinforce the centrality of the World Trade Organization and create momentum in multilateral rule-making.
The Report can be found on the Committee website, along with further information on the inquiry.
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