GLOBAL NEGOTIATIONS

India aims to position itself as a key player in world services trade. To promote services exports, the government has taken a number of policy initiatives – SEIS (Service Exports from India Scheme) for increasing exports of notified services from India; organising GES (Global Exhibitions on Services); and SCs (Services Conclaves). Besides, some initiatives in sectors like tourism and shipping have also been taken in this regard. Given the potential of India’s services exports, services-sector negotiations both at multilateral and bilateral and regional levels are of vital importance to India. Some of the recent negotiations8 are as given below.

WTO Negotiations

Following important decisions were taken at the 10th session of the WTO Ministerial Conference held in Nairobi, Kenya (15–18 December 2015).

(i) Implementation of preferential treatment in favour of services and service suppliers of least developed countries (LDC) and increasing LDC participation in services trade;

(ii) To maintain the current practice of not imposing customs duties on electronic transmissions (e-Commerce) until the next Ministerial Conference to be held in 2017.

(iii) India, together with 20 other members have notified preferential treatment to LDCs in services trade. India has offered this in respect of:

(a) Market access

(b) Technical assistance and capacity building; and

(c) Waiver of visa fees for LDC applicants for business and employment.

In February 2017, India made a presentation a proposal to the WTO for a global pact to boost services trade. The proposal—Trade Facilitation in Services (TFS)—is mainly aimed at ‘ensuring’—easier norms for movement of foreign skilled workers/professionals across borders for short-term work; portability of social security contributions; reasonable fees for immigration; cross-border insurance coverage; boosting medical tourism; and publication availability of relevant information for cross-border supply of services. World Bank data shows the growing share of services in the world economy, the sources said, adding, however, that global trade flows in services remain subject to numerous border and behind-the-border barriers (Ministry of Commerce & Industry).

Bilateral Agreements

The bilateral agreements signed by India in recent times are:

(i) Comprehensive bilateral trade agreements signed, including trade in services, with the governments of Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Malaysia. An FTA in services and investment was signed with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) effective since mid- 2015.

(ii) India has joined the RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) pluri- lateral negotiations. The proposed FTA includes the 10 ASEAN countries and its six FTA partners, viz. Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand. The RCEP is the only mega-regional FTA of which India is a part.

(iii) India is also engaged in bilateral FTA negotiations including trade in services with Canada, Israel, Thailand, the EU, the EFTA (European Free Trade Association), Australia and New Zealand. Dialogue is under way with the US under the India-US Trade Policy Forum (TPF), with Australia under the India-Australia JMC (Joint Ministerial Commission), with China under the India-China Working-Group on Services, and with

Brazil under the India-Brazil Trade Monitoring Mechanism (TMM).