The Hindu Business Line : Move to educate WTO on merits of `negative list'

(From right) Mr Michael F. Carter, Country Director, World Bank (India), Mr R. Gopalan, Joint Secretary, Department of Commerce, and Dr Aditya Mattoo, Lead Economist, International Trade, Development Research Group, at the FICCI-World Bank round table on in the Capital on Monday. — Ramesh Sharma

New Delhi , June 14

INDIA would strive to educate other members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to accept and adopt the concept of "negative list" in services negotiations, a senior Commerce Ministry official has said.

A large number of member countries of the WTO have been expressing reluctance in accepting the "negative list" approach for services negotiations at a multilateral level.

The General Agreement in Trade in Services (GATS) commitments are now undertaken according to "positive list" approach for specified sector activities.

"We have been looking at negative list as a concept. Many countries, including the developed countries, are not interested in this concept. These countries have to get over their fears about negative listing. We will continue to educate them even as we are engaged in the positive list approach," said Mr R. Gopalan, Joint Secretary in the Department of Commerce here on Monday.

He was addressing a round table on `Sustaining India's Services Revolution: Access to Foreign Markets, Domestic Reform and International Negotiations,' jointly organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the World Bank.

One of the advantages of a negative list approach, say in mode one, that is, cross border supply, is that market access cannot be denied in situations where technological developments take place in a particular activity in the future and such services can be delivered on a cross-border basis.