Financial services – Communication

WTO structured discussions on investment facilitation for development

Communication from Canada

Canada’s proposal for investment facilitation for development

The following communication dated 10 November 2020 is being circulated at the request of the delegation of Canada.

1. The purpose of this communication is to signal Canada's interest in discussing approaches to adapt certain provisions of an Agreement on Investment Facilitation for Development to the specific context of financial services, and to propose alternative text to Article 12 (Fees and Charges) as it would apply to financial services.

2. General trade commitments are not always well suited to financial services, given the specific regulatory environment in which financial institutions operate. For example, Canada's usual approach with respect to fees and charges for financial services is to require a party to publish a schedule of fees or information on how they are calculated.

3. Therefore, Canada would propose the following text for a provision on fees and charges as it would apply to financial services:

Each Member shall ensure that its competent authorities, with respect to authorization fees they charge, provide an applicant with a schedule of fees or information on how fee amounts are determined, and do not use the fees as a means of avoiding the Member's commitments or obligations under this Agreement.

4. In the context of the Joint Initiative on Services Domestic Regulation, Members are discussing the inclusion of a tailored financial services annex to adapt provisions that would be challenging if applied in the financial services context. A financial services annex may also be warranted for the Agreement on Investment Facilitation for Development, depending on the content of that agreement.

5. As negotiations in both initiatives progress, Canada reserves the right to modify the above text to accommodate the unique regulatory context of financial services and promote consistency between the two initiatives.