Union commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Wednesday that India will present proposals to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on ways to ease trade in services as the country seeks to leverage
Union commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Wednesday that India will present proposals to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on ways to ease trade in services as the country seeks to leverage one of its competitive strengths.
“While there seems to be trade facilitation for goods, there doesn’t seem to be trade facilitation for services, and that was a point I made in Paris,” said Ms Sitharaman. “This is a matter on which the WTO will now have to work,” she said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for freer trade in services at the recent G20 summit hosted by China and, Ms Sitharaman said, India will soon submit a paper to the WTO as requested at the Paris meeting. India cleared the way for a WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement covering goods in 2014.
However, India’s services sector is a big export earner and the idea of striking a similar multilateral deal on services first came up at a meeting of trade ministers in Paris in June.
