The World Trade Organization approves new rules to facilitate the exchange of services
2/27/2024
On Tuesday, the World Trade Organization approved new rules to facilitate the exchange of services between more than 70 of its member countries, despite initial objection from India and South Africa.
The European Union said in a statement that the agreement will contribute, by facilitating administrative mechanisms and technical rules, to reducing the costs of global trade in services by more than $119 billion every year, according to Agence France-Presse.
In turn, European Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis explained, during the thirteenth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization held in Abu Dhabi, that “reaching this result and integrating it into the World Trade Organization was not an easy matter.”
He added, "We faced opposition from two members of the organization, but the 'spirit of compromise' removed the obstacles in the end," without naming the two countries.
For her part, the Director-General of the Nigerian organization, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, thanked “India and South Africa for finding a way forward.”
The value of global services exports is estimated at more than $6.5 trillion, representing 23% of total global trade, according to the European Union.
The new WTO agreement applies to the 71 member states that have signed it – representing 92% of global trade in services – but businesses from other member states can benefit from it too.
China, the United States, and the European Union are among the signatories to the agreement, while India and South Africa have not signed it.
Costa Rican Foreign Trade Minister Manuel Tover, whose country led the negotiations on the agreement, considered it an “important stage” for the member states of the organization.
"This is the first result achieved by the WTO in the field of services in more than 25 years. It is a real success story for this organization," he said. LINK
No comments:
Post a Comment