[WTO Case Review Series no. 13] China—Certain Measures Affecting Electronic Payment Services (WT/DS413): Vulnerability of normative structure of GATS (Japanese)

Because of emerging China UnionPay (CUP) in the global credit card market and its competition with the Visa card, the first World Trade Organization (WTO) case in the financial services sector received attention from the media and commentators. The United States argued that measures by China to establish CUP as the sole supplier of electronic payment services for all domestic transactions in domestic currency, and broad prohibitions on the use of non CUP cards for cross-region or inter-bank transactions are inconsistent with the WTO agreement. However, the Panel did not conclude that the evidence submitted by the United States failed to establish inconsistency. Only marginal measures, such as requirements of a CUP logo and automated teller machine/point-of-sale (ATM/POS) acceptability of CUP cards were found to be WTO inconsistent. Discussion by the Panel revealed vulnerability in the normative structure of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), including duplication and intransparency of Articles 16 and 17, difficulty in translating "likeness," and uncertainness of scope of specific commitments.