India & the World Trade Organization |
Services The Uruguay Round brought the services sector, for the first time, into the fold of multilateral trade negotiations. According to the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) and "transparency" (viz., publication of all laws and regulations) are the 2 obligations that apply to all services. The commitments, viz., market access and national treatment apply to services that are to be opened up according to specific negotiated commitments only, subject to conditions incorporated in the schedule of commitments. The Agreement covered all the 4 modes of delivery of a service, including cross-border supplies, "commercial presence" and "movement of natural persons". The General Agreement on Trade in Services is coming up for review in the year 2000. Preparations for the negotiations would involve deciding the market access that the we can give and the market access that our services would like to have in other countries. This involves filing of schedules in respect of 12 major sectors and 161 sub-sectors. Preparatory work in this regard has already been initiated. Movement of natural persons (for supply of manpower services in the industrialised countries) is of special importance to us as India enjoys a distinct comparative advantage in this area covering a whole range of services from computer and related services to hotel, health, engineering, construction and other professional services. The process of economic liberalisation involving opening up of capital intensive services such as banking, telecommunications etc., must be matched by increased access for the temporary movement of our skilled and professional people in services of export interest to us. However, hardly any commitments have been made by developed countries in regard to the fourth mode for delivery of services under GATS i.e., movement of natural persons. Negotiations on this will also form part of GATS negotiations in 2000. |