New Delhi, Nov 20: As part of a World Trade Organisation technical assistance programme, commerce ministry in association with industry lobby group FICCI has organised a workshop on General Agreement in Trade and Services (GATS). "The GATS negotiations are in the crucial market access phase (MA) with countries submitting their requests and offers to their trading partners," joint commerce secretary R Gopalan said here.

Inaugurating the workshop, he said, as the negotiations go into the ma phase it is felt there is also a need to expand the knowledge of GATS, its rules and function.

He said there are many issues on GATS, particularly on the rule-making front, on which clarity is needed and it would no doubt be beneficial to have WTO experts for explanation.

The workshop is being conducted by WTO's ex-director, trade in services division, D Hartridge, and its economic affairs officer Martin Roy.
Bureau Report