A group of 18 countries at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) recently issued a joint statement stating that they look forward to entering a “new phase” of negotiations on services from September this year.
In a broad statement, these countries have said that “a significant number of Members have made great advances in opening up their markets, both autonomously as well as through more than 100 services trade agreements notified to the WTO … We believe it is time to bring this progress back to Geneva with the ultimate aim of reinforcing and strengthening the rules-based multilateral trading system.”
The list of signatories includes some developed and developing countries, though India is not part of the group. The European Union (EU) and the US are both signatories to the statement.
The statement says the agreement should be comprehensive in scope, including substantial sectoral coverage; should include market access commitments that correspond as closely as possible to actual practice and provide opportunities for improved market access; and should contain new and enhanced rules developed through negotiations.
This statement is significant since negotiations on services have lagged most other discussions when countries were taking the Doha Round forward. Therefore, to signal that countries would be taking the services agenda forward in the coming months is a development that needs attention.
It is also important to note that according to preliminary estimates by the WTO and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), in the first quarter of 2012, world exports of commercial services rose by three per cent year-on-year, following the same pattern recorded in the fourth quarter of 2011.
The joint statement also comes a few days after WTO Director General Pascal Lamy said at a meeting in Beijing: “it was time we put services at the heart of our trade opening agenda.” Lamy pointed out that for many developed countries, services account for more than 70 per cent of GDP; and that in many developing countries, this share has increased to around 50 per cent. He pressed China to drive a positive agenda in negotiations on services.
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The joint statement is a reflection of the agenda that the US and the EU have been pushing with developing countries like India and China. There has been considerable pressure on India, for instance, to open up some areas of services for greater foreign participation — retail services, financial services and legal services. In all three sectors, there has been considerable political opposition within the country to opening up, and bilateral discussions have not yielded much result.
The WTO may help developed countries move this process forward in a meaningful fashion. As Lamy suggested to Beijing, when countries have an offensive agenda to open trade in services the WTO framework remains the best option.
If the services negotiations do gather momentum, as is suggested in the joint statement, then for the negotiations to bear fruit countries must look at regulations across the globe that hinder the flow of services. It is not just the opening up of the sector that is important. What is equally important is that the local regulations should not be stacked against foreign suppliers. Further, there is a very important introspection to be done by the US and the EU on whether they are keen to look at movement of professionals as part of the services negotiations.
There is considerable pressure within the US, for instance, to allow more Indians and Chinese to obtain green cards. Reports have said that over 300 technology companies from the Silicon valley and other places have petitioned the US Senate Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security to support a piece of legislation that seeks to remove the per-country limit in allotting green cards. Under the current law, 140,000 green cards are available, of which each country has a cap of seven per cent.
Given the current global economic environment, the services negotiations will need much support as work-related cross-border movement of professionals, which is an important demand for countries like India, could create concerns for some developed countries that are already under stress owing to unfavourable jobs data in their respective countries.
The writer is Principal Adviser with APJ-SLG Law Offices