Brussels, 01/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - It is claimed that the fifty-odd countries at the World Trade Organisation that have been in talks since March 2013 to resolve the deadlock in the Doha Trade Round over a Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) would find the task easier if China were to join them.
“The European Union will now strongly support China's swift participation in the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) negotiations,” announced EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht during an official visit by the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, to Brussels on 31 March. “China has reassured the EU that it shares the objectives of the TiSA negotiations and that it would respect the results of the negotiation achieved by other participants if it joins,” explained De Gucht.
In September 2013, China applied to join the TiSA talks, along with the current negotiating partners, Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, South Korea, the United States, Hong Kong, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Liechtenstein, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey and the 28 EU member states.
The TiSA negotiations cover all services sectors, including ITC, logistics, transport, financial services and services for business. The objectives, however, go beyond merely opening up services markets for competition because the idea is to formulate new rules on trade in services, such as those applying to government procurement of services, licensing procedures or access to communication networks.
TiSA is open to all WTO members and is designed to get round the deadlock in the Doha multilateral trade talks by focussing on the trade in services. The negotiations are not being held within the WTO itself due to lack of unanimous support among the organisation's membership, but it is hoped that the TiSA will later be incorporated into the WTO system.
The debate surrounding China's application has been intense due to concerns by some TiSA negotiation participants, but on Monday the EU won assurances from the Chinese that Beijing would try to achieve an ambitious deal. In a press release, the European Commission explains that the EU backs China's application to join TiSA because the EU's strategic objective is to build an agreement with broad participation, and before and during President Xi's visit, China made efforts at the political level to respond to the aims and the level of ambition of the TiSA talks and to accept, if and when it joins the talks, to accept what has been agreed by the current participants.
The fifty initial countries in the TiSA talks cover more than two-thirds of global trade in services. In a research study in 2012, the Peterson Institute for International Economics found that an international agreement in services could generate profits of nearly $80 billion a year in exports among participating countries. The United States and the EU would be the main beneficiaries to the tune of $14 billion and $21 billion respectively. The study found that if Brazil, China and India were to join the agreement, then trade in services would rise by 30%. (EH)