ITES high on India's agenda at WTO talks

India is confident of getting the definition of 'computer-related services' in the GATS widened, to include ITES and BPO services. WTO talks on the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) will begin in Hong Kong in December.

"We have the support of 25 countries that are part of the 'friends of mode four' group, and are positive that the GATS schedule will be enlarged to include ITES and BPO," department of information technology officials told Business Standard.

After the inclusion of ITES and BPO services in the GATS schedule, no country would be able to restrict market access to the Indian IT industry, said an official.

At present, the schedule has only eight items under computer-related services. India's complaint has been that the term 'computer-related services' is ambiguous and does not include the entire IT industry. The US, UK, Japan and Indonesia are some of the active members of the 'friends of mode four'.