Trade Committee Chair Bernd Lange made the following statement today about the conclusion of negotiations among 67 World Trade Organisation (WTO) members to simplify trade in services.
“I welcome the conclusion of the plurilateral agreement on domestic services regulation. It is significant in two ways.
First, the economic benefits of this agreement cannot be underestimated: annual trade costs savings could be in the range of USD 150 billion. Streamlining regulations, reducing the time for businesses to deal with administrative procedures and cutting red tape will make the trade of services significantly smoother.
Second, this agreement shows that progress can be made on a plurilateral level, despite the sometimes difficult discussions on the multilateral level with all WTO members on board.
While this is certainly a positive development, we have to remain vigilant and make sure that the right to regulate sensitive services is not limited and that public services are not put under pressure.
I also applaud the EU’s role as a key player in the negotiations and I hope we can encourage more developing countries to join this initiative. While businesses in these countries will be able to benefit from this arrangement directly, joining this initiative would allow the developing countries to provide a more stable regulatory environment that might increase foreign investment.
Hopefully, this agreement will give momentum to other plurilateral and multilateral negotiations.”
Background
67 WTO members, including the EU and representing more than 90% of trade in services, agreed to cut red tape affecting the sector. The so-called Joint Initiative on Services Domestic Regulation will simplify regulations and ease administrative burdens, and will help reduce the costs of global services trade.
The European Parliament has been calling for the conclusion of talks in its latest resolution on the WTO.