New Delhi, Feb 22: Armed with a report from the World Bank seeking stronger commitments from developed nations in services sector in favour of developing countries, India is likely to present a paper based on it at the WTO. As part of the process to prepare the paper, Commerce Ministry has initiated consultations with concerned ministries, professional bodies, industry associations and other stakeholders to elicit their views on the subject.
If the stakeholders also express views similar to that of World Bank recommending changes in the schedule list of services, India would table a model schedule on Mode 1 on the lines of paper presented by Friends of Mode 4 after garnering support from other countries, official sources said.
At WTO, services negotiations are carried out in the form of offers and requests in various forms or modes of supply wherein Mode 1 is for cross-border supply like Business Process Outsourcing and Mode 4 is for movement of natural persons.
The study, which was undertaken by the Bank on behalf of India, has pointed out that services under Mode 1 had undergone tremendous change in nature due to emergence of new technologies after 1995 and either the existing schedule had to be overhauled completely or list of new areas be added to facilitate countries to make offers for them.
It has suggested two ways of approaching the issue. First includes list of services which have not been covered so far under existing classification or an indicative classification at a disaggregated or sectoral level. Bureau Report