Chamber Urges Progress in Services Negotiations

Chamber Urges Progress in Services Negotiations

The Wellington Regional Chamber of Commerce has joined its service industry counterparts around the world in pushing for an ambitious deal in services as part of the Doha Round of trade talks.

The Global Service Coalition has had a series of meetings with key WTO officials and negotiators reminding them of the importance of services in the world economy and emphasising the crucial role services play in the Doha Round. (Link to Global Services Coalition Press Release).

“Services account for 50-60% of global economic activity in most developing countries, and 70% or more in developed countries. The Wellington region’s economy is one of the most dependent on the service activities of any region in New Zealand. 90% of our regional GDP is generated by services activity, said Chamber CEO, Charles Finny.

“The Chambers’ view is that for key countries to agree to liberalisation of trade in difficult areas such as agriculture there will need to be some progress in areas where they seek changes, such as trade in services.

“Not only do services negotiations have the potential to break the current impasse, they are crucial in their own right. Both developed and developing countries stand to gain enormously from the liberalisation of international trade in services.

“While we acknowledge the on-going importance of agriculture to the New Zealand economy, there needs to be good emphasis placed on achieving a high quality outcome in non-agricultural goods and services. The better the deals in these areas, the better the deal on agriculture will be.

“It was quite clear at the meeting in Geneva that major countries shared the Chamber’s view that failure to deliver in the services segment of the Round would make it hard to secure support for a deal in Washington and Brussels,” Mr Finny concluded.

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