India Proposes Global Services Accord Pact to WTO Chief Azevedo

India Proposes Global Services Accord Pact to WTO Chief Azevedo

India presented the proposed Trade Facilitation(सुगमता)  in  Services (TFS) Agreement to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director General Roberto Azevedo and India Inc. on February 9, 2017 in an event organized by Confederation of Indian Industry in New Delhi. The WTO chief was on a two day

visit to India from February 8-9, 2017. The global pact proposed by India to boost services trade at the WTO-level aims to ease norms including those relating to movement of foreign skilled workers and professionals across borders for short-term work. The pact also aims to ensure portability (सुवाह्यता) of social security contributions, and make fees for immigration (आप्रवासन) or visas are reasonable, transparent, and non-restrictive in nature. .It also aims to pave (प्रशस्त) the way for a single window mechanism for foreign investment approvals. The proposal is about making market access effective and commercially meaningful.  Besides, the proposal will also ensure cross-border insurance coverage to boost medical tourism, publication of measures impacting services trade and timely availability of relevant(प्रासंगिक)  information in all the WTO official languages as well as free flow of data or information for cross-border supply of services.