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The European Union will chair the 6th Round of negotiations for the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) which begin today in Geneva, with a view to opening up markets in services ranging from financial services, e-commerce to maritime transport among World Trade Organisation's (WTO) members.
As EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht stated: "I'm glad to see we have momentum towards getting a broad-based trade in services agreement. This is excellent news for an ever more important sector of the European economy.”
51 WTO members are taking part in the negotiations, 28 of which are EU Member States, but the EU is counted as a single participant. So far, 20 countries have presented their proposals for signing the TiSA. Paraguay, Chile, and Pakistan are the last three countries that have not yet revealed their intentions regarding opening up their services markets and to what degree.
This negotiation round will last eight days. During the first three days discussions will focus on the 20 initial offers, while the following five days, negotiators will discuss regulations in specific services sectors.
Talks will examine thoroughly six topics: financial services; telecommunication and e-commerce; domestic regulation and transparency; professional services, maritime transport and so-called "mode 4", the supply of services by foreign persons. These topics are almost ready to be put into draft negotiating texts. Working groups will also run in parallel to try to get maximum progress. Participants will exchange views on road transport, competitive delivery services and air transport as well.
Source: neurope.eu
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