Securities industry trade associations around the globe continue to push countries to liberalize trade in financial services trade under the auspices of the World Trade Organization.

The U.S. Securities Industry Association, the Investment Dealers Association of Canada, the Australian Financial Markets Association, and the International Capital Market Association issued a statement on the WTO’s efforts in this area so far, noting that, after meetings in Hong Kong in December, a plurilateral request on financial services was completed.

A plurilateral request is a collective request process that allows like-minded countries to develop a consensus-based document for a specific sector. In this case, the document calls for the removal of specific barriers to market access and other measures that discriminate against foreign suppliers in financial services. The document includes a set of requests that will be submitted to individual countries.

“The associations welcome the important progress made in the Doha Round since the conclusion of the Hong Kong Ministerial. Specifically, we are pleased that the plurilateral request process has resulted in requests in a number of key areas that will enhance the bilateral request/offer process. We are particularly appreciative of the efforts undertaken by WTO members to develop a collective request for the financial services sector,” they say.

The trade associations urge WTO members to make improvements in their market access and national treatment commitments with respect to four capital markets related services – trading, underwriting, asset management, and financial advisory services.

They note that the industry’s key goals are: permitting the provision of cross-border services to sophisticated investors without the obligation to establish a local presence and without local authorization; enabling consumers to travel outside their territories to obtain capital markets-related services; and, allowing foreign service suppliers to establish and operate enterprises free from quantitative restrictions, economic needs tests, restrictions on corporate form, limits on foreign ownership, and measures that discriminate based on nationality.

They also call on WTO members to: propose regulations in draft form and allow comment on those regulations; make publicly available the requirements that suppliers must meet in order to supply a service; and, enforce laws and regulations according to fair and transparent criteria.

“The associations seek an outcome to the services negotiations that reflects these objectives,” the note. “We are ready to work vigorously with WTO members in support of an outcome that benefits consumers and investors of financial products and services, while promoting economic development and growth, and job creation.”