Services sector scope under WTO regime to be discussed

The development of Pakistan's services market in the light of negotiations on services in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) will be considered at the national services workshop here on May 26 and 27.
The workshop is being held in conjunction with the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), as part of the European Commission-funded Trade Related Technical Assistance (TRTA) programme in Pakistan, which the International Trade Centre (ITC) is implementing.
According to ITC, the workshop will enable public and private services sector stakeholders to consider strengthening of services exports in Pakistan.
It will also identify obstacles to growing the Pakistan services market and the potential commercial and economic implications of deeper commitments in services in the WTO, through discussion with service industry regulators and negotiators, national experts, business leaders and academicians.
The workshop will allow public and private sector decision-makers to examine the scope and competitiveness of the Pakistan services market and discuss where businesses see export markets of opportunity.
It seeks to enhance awareness among government officials, the business sector and civil society about the implications of WTO agreements on the economy of the country, and to assist Pakistan in building the necessary capacity to address issues resulting from its participation in WTO.
The workshop is designed to deepen the understanding of the commercial and economic implications of the GATS negotiations, and the emerging multilateral trading system.
It will allow public and private sector decision-makers to anticipate changes that the WTO negotiations will bring about and to position themselves within the new multilateral trading environment.
The enhanced knowledge will also equip business leaders to play a more meaningful advocacy role with the government, with a view to contributing to the completion of the WTO GATS negotiations.
To assess the viability of commitments within the GATS negotiations, trade negotiators seek to capture the national policy and regulatory framework in the sectors that are the subject of discussions.
To enhance service exports and develop objectives for services trade negotiations, public officials also work to understand the contours of the home market of service industries, including its strengths and weaknesses, new product developments, and service supply limitations.
They are interested in knowing in which sectors and to which countries domestic firms export services, the geographical and sectoral breakdown of foreign direct investment in services as well as foreign markets of opportunity.
Furthermore, they are interested in the trade impediment service providers' encounter domestically and abroad, the significance of those barriers and how domestic firms are treated vis-à-vis national and foreign firms in foreign markets. These issues will come up for detailed discussion during the two-day workshop.