Brussels, 15/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - On the sidelines of the 17th round of negotiations for an international trade in services agreement (TiSA) held in Geneva on 10-15 April (see EUROPE 11528), the global services coalition - which represents companies and federations in the services industries in Europe, Australia, Canada, Colombia, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Taiwan and the USA - called for the conclusion of a “high ambition agreement” by the end of 2016.
The ambitious 2016 roadmap for the TiSA negotiations, which provides for numerous sessions of technical level talks and two deadlines for the exchange of revised market access, offers “demonstrates a clear willingness to seek to conclude the negotiations in the near future”, the coalition states in a press release on 14 April.
The goal of this week's round was to ensure that concrete progress be made on stabilising the texts of the core agreement and of the regulatory disciplines in crucial areas such as national regulation, transparency in licensing procedures, in telecommunications and in e-commerce (particularly data flows and prohibitions on forced data localisation for all sectors), financial services and delivery services, the press release states
In addition, work was expected to be done on other key issues such as the movement of services providers (Mode 4 of the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services - GATS), environmental services and transport.
“The substance of the deal remains paramount”, the coalition states, calling on the negotiators “to make utmost strides to conclude the talks by the end of this year”. The services industries therefore encourage the participating countries to move on to an exchange of offers by the end of May, and to plan a ministerial level meeting “in due time”.
“For much too long, services in multilateral negotiations have been hostage to other negotiating topics. The TiSA offers the best opportunity to overcome that impasse and establish a template for 21st century services trade, for the benefit of the world economy”, the press release concludes. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)