May 27, 2008

WTO Services Text Undershoots

The Chair of the WTO Services negotiations released a draft negotiating text overnight. This has not been well received in Washington and EU capitals. With the non-agricultural market access text having gone so far backwards the only hope for some balance to the agriculture concessions expected of the US and EU was a good outcome on services. The current text is still very weak and does not reflect the interests of US and EU industry. A strong and very negative statement is being circulated around services players in OECD capitals for release in the next few hours.