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| Saturday, 28 June 2003 |
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India to lobby for free movement of people in WTO trade talks NEW DELHI, Friday (AFP)-India will use its status among developing nations to try and knock down barriers on the movement of people between countries in upcoming WTO trade negotiations at Cancun, a statement said Wednesday. Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley said in the statement that such free movement of people was crucial for the supply of services in sectors such as information technology. "As such, we look for sector-specific commitments and for support for the removal of barriers such as economic needs tests, procedural difficulties associated with visas and work-permits, and non-recognition of qualifications," he was quoted as saying. "Coordinated efforts are necessary to get negotiations on Mode 4 (the provision dealing with movement of people) started at Cancun, perhaps based on the Mode Schedule being proposed by us," he said. "We expect support from the developed countries as well as the friends of Mode 4 group on this issue in the run-up to Cancun." His comments were made at a recent informal ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), called the "mini ministerial," held at Sharm El Sheikh, near Cairo in Egypt. Jaitley expressed disappointment at the initial offers made so far by developed countries on freeing the movement of people, saying that there was "little tangible response" to requests from poor nations. He added that guidelines for negotiations in this area finalised in March 2001 had explicitly stated "progressive liberalisation of trade in services" as an objective. India's booming information technology sector has been concerned by moves in some developed countries to review the number of work visas issued amid growing fears over loss of jobs to foreigners. These concerns have even spilled over into outsourcing of IT work - an area of booming growth in India - with certain US states mulling legislation to curb buying such services from other countries. Jaitley said that this was an area in which he will focus on during upcoming trade negotiations in Cancun. |
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