New WTO services proposal sought

New WTO services proposal sought

Agence France-Presse, Geneva

Five South East Asian nations have made an alternative proposal for global trade talks on liberalizing services in the run-up to the World Trade Organization's (WTO) conference in Hong Kong, according to a text released on Wednesday.

The informal draft submitted by Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand crosses out large parts of the top negotiator's report on services included by WTO Director General Pascal Lamy in his text for Hong Kong.

The Asian text notably changes the language in areas where developing nations feared wealthy countries with strong service suppliers were trying to lock poor nations into responding to requests for opening.

Lamy's overall text coverning the main areas of the Doha Round -- agriculture, industrial goods and services -- is meant to serve as a basis for the deadlocked talks in Hong Kong and he has made it clear it is open to substantial change.

Top trading powers such as the European Union and the United States want greater access to services and industrial markets in other nations in return for concessions on agriculture in the Doha Round.

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson has complained about a lack of progress on services, which covers areas such as finance, computing, postal services, telecoms, health, water supply and temporary labor.

A group of non governmental organizations and trade unions wrote to Lamy to complain that the negotiating process in the run-up to Hong Kong is "undemocratic".

The groups, including South Center, Public Services International and the Institute for Agricultural and Trade Policy, said objections and proposals by developing countries, notably in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, in recent months had been ignored in the draft text on services.

"We're vigilant about what's happening because we do not believe a process like this will lead to a fair agreement," Shefali Sharma of IATP told journalists on Wednesday.