March 28, 2003	Friday	Muharram 24, 1424

GENEVA, March 27: Pakistan has sought greater market access for its services sector to developed countries for enhancing export of services to these countries.

Official sources in the WTO secretariat requesting anonymity told Dawn on Thursday that in this connection all 145-member countries, including Pakistan, are expected to submit their offers by end of the current month.

However, most of developing countries are still skeptical about the benefits in terms of the market access and improvement of their supply capacity. Therefore, very few have submitted their initial requests for market access.

Pakistan is one of the few developing countries that has already submitted its initial request for market access, seeking export of services in around 20 professional services to both developed and developing countries.

Pakistan has already offered the market access in many sectors through the commitment schedule submitted to the WTO secretariat in 1995.

During the current round of negotiations more areas of Pakistan’s interest could be identified for giving access to foreign services suppliers, as well as getting market access for their own services exports, said the officials.

Official statistics made available to Dawn showed that developing countries’ share of world services exports has increased by a small percentage. In the period from adoption of General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) to 1999, the increase had only been 6 per cent, mostly due to the export competitiveness of Asian developing countries. On the other hand, developed countries account for three quarters of world exports of services and represent most of the 20 top exporters in different services sector.

The officials said that developing countries were seeking a balance in the trade in services during the current negotiations. However, they said, that it was yet to be seen what developed countries had in their bags for developing countries.

According to sources, developing countries had sought flexibility for submitting initial offers by end of the current month. They were of the opinion that submission of the offers was complex and technical job. Moreover, they lack expertise and capacity in formulating their offers, which have legal implications. Hence, developing countries needed more time to examine their national policy objective and to make more informed and well considered offers.

Developing countries are looking forward to get benefits from developed countries in this round of negotiations. There is a general feeling among developing countries that the benefits promised to them during the Uruguay round of negotiations have not accrued, said the officials.

Developing countries face a number of critical barriers to their services exports — ranging from prohibition of access to services markets — nationality, residency or visa requirement; use of economic needs tests; lack of recognition of education standards; price based measures — entry and exit taxes, visa fees, tariffs on goods in which services; subsidies granted in developed countries; technical standards and licensing requirements; and lack of transparency in the government measures.

The officials said developing countries recognize the potential benefits of liberalization in trade in services for their economies. However, gains from services liberalization have been often nullified by such factors as limited access in modes and sectors of exports interest to them and to supply side constraints.

Developing countries recognized the contribution of services to GDP and employment. They consider that the assessment of trade in services as mandated in the GATS should be conducted on a sectoral basis in order for them to participate in a commercially meaningful manner.