WTO approves services trade rules, overcoming objections

ABU DHABI: The World Trade Organization Tuesday enshrined new rules facilitating trade in services between more than 70 member states, the European Union’s trade commissioner said, despite initial objections from India and South Africa.

The set of rules will streamline authorisation requirements and ease procedural hurdles faced by businesses, according to a press release.

It will help reduce the costs of global services trade by more than $119 billion every year, it added.

The integration into the WTO implies all 164 members have approved, given the body’s rules requiring full consensus.

“Reaching this outcome...and integrating it into the WTO has not been an easy pass,” EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said during the WTO’s 13th ministerial conference in Abu Dhabi.

“We faced opposition from two WTO members” but a “spirit of compromise” eventually cleared hurdles, he said without naming any country. WTO chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, meanwhile, thanked “India and South Africa for finding a way forward,” calling services the “future of trade.”

Global services exports are valued at more than $6.5 trillion, representing 23 percent of total world trade, according to the EU.