India will "shortly" move a proposal at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to start discussions on trade facilitation agreement in services, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said today.
India is pushing for a trade agreement (TFA) on services as members of the global trade body WTO have concluded a similar pact for the goods sector.
Sitharaman raised the issue of TFA in services during an informal meeting with key members of WTO on the sidelines of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) ministerial council meeting in Paris held recently.
WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo welcomed it and asked India to submit the proposal for discussion.
"We will do that at the earliest... This is a good breakthrough which we can achieve," she told reporters here.
On the proposal, she said like goods, there is a total absence of collective recognition of services sector as part of trade in the WTO.
"Trade is no longer just in finished goods. Trade is no longer in material goods. In fact world economy today depends more on trade in services...Services put under the definition of commodity. We are saying make that distinction obvious.
"Recognise that services is a tradeable item and if it is atradebale item, shouldn't there be a framework, shouldn't the WTO, which is the ultimate body for dealing with anything under trade, have a space for it, definition for it and have a procedure for arbitration for it," she said.
India is pitching for this agreement as the services sector contribute about 60 per cent in the GDP and 28 per cent in the total employment.
She also said that this proposal will not be treated as "new issues" being pushed in the WTO.
When asked whether it would propose deadlines for clearance of visas within time line among others as part of the proposal, Sitharaman said it could include such things but it all depends on the negotiations between the members.
The move assumes significance as about a dozen countries are already negotiating Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) in the WTO, she said the framework and contours of the TFA in services would be much broader and many things can be subsumed in this. India is not part of TISA.
Further she said that many member countries during the Paris meeting emphasised on the need to conclude the remaining agenda of the Doha Round.
About the pace of post-Nairobi meet, Sitharaman said: "nothing concrete is happening. From now onwards, we will closely watch how things are moving".
