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BREGT NATENS – JAN WOUTERS CYIL 4 ȍ2013Ȏ beyond negotiations on scheduling improved commitments and thereby remain within the DDA mandate and the existing GATS framework. 79 It is unclear whether this approach will solve the difficult issues regarding electronic commerce. Nonetheless, this approach may open the door for a Reference Paper or Understanding-type agreement scheduled as additional commitments. 4.2 Modalities for LDCs The DDA was initially conceived as a development round with a focus on the role of and benefits for LDCs in the multilateral trading system. No real progress in favour of LDCs was made up until the end of 2011. However, at that time, a fifteen year waiver for preferential treatment in services trade and for service suppliers from LDCs was adopted. 80 The Ministerial Conference which adopted the waiver stated that, as LDCs are confronted with exceptional circumstances, the waiver is warranted. 81 Substantively, the waiver allows non-LDC Members to deviate from their MFN obligations and grant preferential treatment to every LDC, immediately and unconditionally, compared to the treatment granted to like services and service suppliers of other Members. At first, the waiver only applies to market access measures described in Article XVI GATS, but the preferential treatment could be expanded to other obligations after approval by the Council for Trade in Services. The waiver is meant to promote the export interests of LDCs but should not increase trade barriers or create excessive difficulties for the trade of another Member. Although the practical impact of the waiver remains to be seen, 82 its adoption must be seen as a rare positive outcome of the DDA services negotiations. 5. Plurilaterals next for services negotiations in the WTO? In comparison to the possible economic benefits from a multilateral agreement, negotiations on trade in services in the DDA have not attracted any political will. Even more, they appear to be used only as a bargaining chip in the context of the Programme on Electronic Commerce (Adopted by the Ministerial Conference 17 December 2011). Also see S/C/M/112, Council for Trade in Services Report of the Meeting Held on 6 December 2012, Note by the Secretariat (21 January 2013) 6-9. 79 Wunsch-Vincent, WTO, E-commerce, and Information Technologies: From the Uruguay Round through the Doha Development Agenda 24. 80 The adoption of a waiver for LDCs in the context of the so-called Modalities for the Special Treatment for Least-Developed Country Members in the Negotiations on Trade in Services was forged on Articles IV:3 and XIX:2 GATS, which was elaborated upon in TN/S/13, Modalities for the Special Treatment for Least-Developed Country Members in the Negotiations on Trade in Services (Adopted by the Council for Trade in Services 5 September 2003) and reaffirmed in paragraph 3 of Annex C of the WT/ MIN(05)/DEC, Ministerial Declaration (Doha Work Programme) (Adopted 18 December 2005). 81 TN/S/37, Preferential Treatment to Services and Service Suppliers of Least-Developed Countries (Report by the Chairman of the Council for Trade in Services 29 November 2011); WT/L/847, Preferential Treatment to Services and Service Suppliers of Least-Developed Countries (Adopted by the Ministerial Conference 19 December 2011). 82 Hannes Schloemann, ‘The LDC Services Waiver: Making it Work’ (2012) 1 Bridges Africa Review .