Brussels, 06/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - The 13th negotiating session for a trade in services agreement (TiSA) began in Geneva for a week on Monday 6 July. The session is due to assess progress made thus far and to set out the next steps of the negotiating process.
This stocktaking round will enable identification of the areas for negotiation that are making good progress, those that need more work, and those that - given the current difficulties - may require a political decision, the European Commission states in a news sheet dated 3 July.
The negotiators will assess the level of ambition of the offers on the negotiating table as regards market access, and will consider how to step up the negotiations in the second half of 2015. The EU will invite all the participants that have not yet done so to table an offer by the end of the summer.
The negotiators also want to move forward this week on several specific issues - including national regulations (particularly licensing procedures and requirements, and professional qualifications), financial services, telecommunications and the movement of natural persons as service suppliers (mode 4). Some negotiating sessions will also be dedicated to maritime and road transport, transparency and e-commerce.
Around 50 WTO countries - Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Liechtenstein, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, Uruguay, the USA and the 28 EU member states - have been involved in this negotiation since March 2013. The aim of the negotiation is to circumvent the stalemate of the WTO Doha round on the liberalisation of trade in services. These countries together account for 70% of world trade in services. Mauritius is reportedly expected to join the negotiations this week, and China soon.
The TiSA negotiations cover all service sectors - including ICT, logistics and transport services, financial services, and services to companies. The objective of the future agreement, however, goes beyond just opening up services markets. It is also about developing new rules on trade in services, like those that apply to public procurement in services, licensing procedures or access to communication networks. (Emmanuel Hagry)