Business IdeasIndia to again stress services at WTO ministerial talks
Movement on this seems stuck and linked initiative to defreeze progress needed, say analysts.
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As trade ministers from 153 WTO member-countries get together on Monday in Geneva to discuss a multilateral deal, India would focus on putting services negotiations on the same track as agriculture and non-agricultural market access (Nama).
India had insisted on so placing the service negotiations even during the informal ministerial meeting in New Delhi in early September this year. The meeting saw participation from a handful of countries, but the efforts did not succeed, with the US insisting on a fresh approach to the talks. In the subsequent meetings of chief negotiators in Geneva, which resumed from September 14, India voiced its demand to put negotiations on services under the main agenda list.
India and other developing countries have been pushing for services trade specifically under Mode 4, which stipulates movement of professionals.
Sources in the ministry of commerce and industry told Business Standard that even as India is ready to harmonise its position on agriculture and Nama, it would continue to remain vocal on the demand of keeping services negotiations on track. "It would be raised in the forthcoming meeting," said the official.
The three-day ministerial is taking place after a gap of four years. The last ministerial in Hong Kong in 2005 had failed to close the Doha round of negotiations, which began in November 2001.
Earlier, WTO director-general Pascal Lamy had also urged member-countries, especially the rich nations, to shift their focus to having a “substantial services package”, without which it would be difficult to reach a deal by 2010.
“This is the time when India and the developing countries can actually put their demands in services negotiations and assert its importance in the talks,” said Manab Majumdar, assistant secretary-general, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci).
Sources also said India had recently rejected efforts to prepare a services draft by the developed countries based on the “signalling meeting” that took place in July last year, when the talks had collapsed. With the onset of global economic downturn, developed countries, especially the US, have imposed several restrictions on Mode 4 services in the guise of bailout packages.
“The way things have shaped up since September and looking at the kind of approach the new Obama administration has on the Doha deal, nothing substantial would take place in the ministerial. However, these issues can be discussed in the bilateral talks,” said Linu Mathew, executive director, Centre for Trade Development.
The WTO recognises four modes of supply in the services sector. One is on services supplied through internet, telecommunications (Mode 1), those related to tourism, where the consumer of the services travels to the country where it is supplied (Mode 2), services supplied by the commercial presence of a service provider in the other country (Mode 3) and services supplied by individuals travelling to other countries to provide services such as software professionals, doctors and nurses, among others (Mode 4).