New Delhi, Apr 30: The European Union's offer on services generated mixed response from the government which said it was disappointed at the EU not accepting the GATS visa regime even as it welcomed the move to allow limited movement of professionals. Though the EU's failure to accept the GATS visa regime was disappointing, but its attempt in the direction of opening up services would be welcomed, commerce ministry officials said today.
Reacting to the EU offer on services placed before the WTO yesterday, the officials said here that any opening on Mode 4 (movement of professionals) would be welcomed.
However, they said it remains to be seen what their offer would translate into on Mode 1 (dealing with cross border services like call centres) and added that the fine prints of the offer were still being studied.
The EU offer on services proposed to fix a minimum binding on the number of persons in various sectors but falls short of fixing an exact number which is open to negotiations bilaterally.
"It is not a ceiling but a minimum binding. The number of inflow in many services at present is very low, there will be no numerical limit for individual member states," EU's trade commissioner Pascal Lamy had said in a teleconference.
The proposal fully preserves the EU's public services and in particular health and social sector, education and audio-visual services where it has not made any offer.
Terming the offer as ambitious in terms of market opening, he had said the offer will in particular benefit developing countries like India with large stakes in information technology, architecture and engineering. Bureau Report