Apr 15, 1987
SERVICES NEGOTIATION WITHOUT DATA ON TRADE FLOWS?
GENEVA APRIL 13 (IFDA/CHAKRAVARTHI RAGHAVAN) -- Four international organisations - the UN Statistical Office, the UNCTC, UNCTAD and the IMF - are to be invited to the next meeting, June 29 - July 3, of the Uruguay Round Group of Negotiations on Services (GNS) to explain their statistical data on "trade in services". At its meeting last week, the GNS reportedly decided on this, as proposed by Brazil, so that participants could discuss with statisticians the issues and problems in collating disaggregated basic data on international trade flows in services to help in negotiations. The invitation to the four organisations to participate at the next meeting, participants said, was to be an on ad hoc basis and without prejudice to the issue of granting "observer" status to them and/or calling upon them to provide technical support for the GNS in the negotiations. The discussions, third world participants said, brought out that not only is there now lack of meaningful data on international "trade" flows in services, but it may be another five to ten years before any data at a sufficiently disaggregated level would become available at country and sectoral levels. Nevertheless, the U.S. and its supporters suggested that negotiations on services should not be held up for lack of data. The U.S. felt that statistics, which would not be available for five to ten years, was not a critical element for the negotiations, while Canada felt that it was a "technical issue" that could not be handled in the GNS. The EEC agreed that attention would have to be devoted to statistics, to enable a smooth functioning of the multilateral framework, but felt this could be tackled after the framework was negotiated. Sweden said the GNS should give an impetus to work of statisticians, but GATT was not the Forum for such work. Third world participants however disagreed, and said that data on trade flows was a necessary condition for successful negotiations, and the GNS must tackle the issue and evolve its own approach. Without statistics, India is reported to have pointed out, third world countries would be unable to understand the implications. Most international "trade" in services were "in-house" transactions, within a TNC and its subsidiaries, and by definition "non-transparent and invisible". Statistics was thus an important precondition for successful negotiations. While there might be many approaches, the GNS must evolve its own approach. Egypt and Yugoslavia strongly supported the Indian view, while Switzerland reportedly stressed that in the matter of statistics it was more or less in the same position as third world countries, namely lacking in data. The GNS also agreed to an Indian proposal that the GATT Secretariat should be asked to provide for the subsequent September meeting a factual background note on the existing international disciplines and arrangements in various service sectors. The Uruguay Round mandate requires the negotiators to take into account the work of relevant international organisations. Supporting the Indian proposal the EEC agreed on the need to ensure compatibility with existing arrangements, but felt this could be secured through sector-specific rules and exceptions. The Nordic too agreed on the need to avoid overlap with other international organisations, and said no multilateral framework could be evolved on trade in services which would be incompatible with existing disciplines and arrangements. The U.S. however though that the GNS need not be concerned with all existing arrangements, but only those dealing with trade. Canada felt that all arrangements should be examined to see they did not impinge on trade. This to some third world participants appeared to imply that in such an event existing arrangements should be modified. Jamaica felt that not only existing international arrangements, but also bilateral and regional arrangements would have to be examined, specially those that distorted trade through "closed markets" or through "cost and price determination".