South East Asian nations make services proposal in WTO talks

South East Asian nations make services proposal in WTO talks

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.