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India can gain as much as US $ 50 billion annually from a mere 3 % increase by the developed countries of the Organisation of Economic cooperation (OECD) increase their quota of temporary workers ( i.e., in respect of Mode 4 ) in the Services negotiations in the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Similarly, India can gain a market share of US $ 40- US $ 60 billion per year in exports from the global outsourcing boom ( i.e., Mode 1) as the BPO and the information technology-enabled services market is expected to grow from $ 774 billion to $ 1049 billion between 2002-2006, according to UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development). This was indicated by Ms. Lakshmi Puri, Director, Division of International Trade in Goods and Services and Commodities, UNCTAD, in her inaugural address at the Pre-Hong Kong Ministerial Stakeholder Consultation Workshop on the Services Negotiations in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) here today. Shri R. Gopalan, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Dr Veena Jha, UNCTAD India Programme Coordinator and Dr. Amit Mitra, Secretary General of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) also addressed the two-day Workshop which has been jointly organised by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and UNCTAD under the aegis of the Ministry of Commerce-UNCTAD-DFID project on the strategies and preparedness for trade and globalisation in India.
Shri Gopalan said India’s primary interests were in Mode 4 (movement of natural persons) and Mode 1 (Cross-border supply of services covering BPO etc). Issues acting as roadblocks in Mode 4 related to Economic Needs Tests, grant of visa, labour market requirements and so on. In Mode 1, most countries had liberal regimes, but there were issues to be looked into – e.g., with the progress of technology, new services were coming up and how these could be adequately captured in the negotiations. In respect of Mode 3 relating to commercial presence and investment, he said, countries like India were liberalising autonomously and commitments to be undertaken in the Wto would be decided only in consultation with the industry. He indicated that India had tabled its initial offers in the WTO in early 2004 and was about to make its revised offers as part of the request-offer process. He reiterated that the US and EU revised offers were unsatisfactory, adding that the US offer did not, in fact, move much beyond the Uruguay Round. Dr. Mitra mentioned how qualification criteria and wage requirements were being used by developed countries to undermine possibilities in Mode 4.
Ms Puri stated that UNCTAD had evolved development benchmarks to help developing countries to assess requests and formulate offers in the services negotiations. These include increasing services exports of developing countries, competitiveness of developing countries, scope and openness of services economy to exports from developing countries and trade in services and social indicators such as contribution to poverty eradication, gender imbalance, employment etc. Dr Mitra welcomed the UNCTAD benchmarks and said these needed to be looked into for leveraging in the WTO negotiations.
Industry representatives, experts, policy makers, consumers organisations and representatives of civil society participated in today’s deliberations, which focussed on the state of play in the ongoing WTO negotiations in the area of services and how India’s objectives could be furthered in the negotiations.
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