India to table its offers on services at WTO

They, however, said most of the offers cover mode I and mode 4 of supply implying cross border supply of services and movement of natural persons respectively.

The offers made can be revised or withdrawn depending on the response received from the trading partners. India had made limited commitments at the end of the uruguay round in some sectors like engineering, tourism and computer-related, which are being revised now.

Cabinet committee on WTO, headed by the prime minister, had approved the broad strategy for services negotiations at WTO in June this year.

The cabinet had also made it clear that government was not willing to negotiate on the opening up of distributive (retail and wholesale), legal, posts and courier and audio-visual services.

Other services like energy, education, environment, recreation, culture and sports services could be considered for opening up only after undertaking more studies on these areas, the sources said.

India, which is emerging as a major global services provider in various sectors, is trying to play a pro-active role in the services negotiations. The offers which are to be tabled have been made in consultation with the concerned ministries, they added.