September 28 , 2010
IN THIS ALERT:
Global Services Summit Highlights Now Available on the Web Highlights from the September 22, 2010 Global Services Summit are now available on the web. Highlights include videos of the speeches and panel discussions, copies of prepared remarks, photos, press releases, the Summit communiqué, and related materials. Visit the Summit web page at http://www.uscsi.org/ServicesSummit2010.html. Send questions or concerns about the Summit to servicessummit@uscsi.org, or call (202) 289-7460. |
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The Global Services Summit concluded with a call for the G20 and APEC Leaders to use their upcoming meetings to put services trade negotiations front and center in the global trade agenda. The Summit urged the G20 to engage vigorously on services and make a determined effort to engage in services market access negotiations, before leaders convene in Seoul in November.
Global Services Summit Communiqué, Washington D.C. 22 September 2010
| The Global Services Coalition (GSC) includes; Australian Services Roundtable, Canadian Services Coalition, Coalition of Service Industries (United States), European Services Forum, Hong Kong Coalition of Service Industries, Japan Services Network, NASSCOM (India), Taiwan Coalition of Services Industries, TheCityUK (United Kingdom), Business New Zealand. |
Global Service Industries Call for Action on Services Trade
The GSC today issued the following statement at the close of the second Global Services Summit:
Services industry leaders from across the world today call upon G20 Leaders, as well as APEC Leaders, to use their upcoming meetings in Seoul and Yokohama respectively, to re-ignite the Doha Round, and move forward, with urgency and resolve, on a path that will lead to the Doha Round's successful conclusion. A successful Round will only be possible if the services negotiations are elevated to more centre-stage and substantial and commercially meaningful outcomes are achieved, including bindings of new market access and of autonomous liberalization and commitments to enhanced transparency, efficiency and predictability of services regulation.
The call for action came at the 2nd Global Services Summit, held today in Washington, DC, attended by hundreds of leaders in the services trade field. Featured speakers included Trade Ministers from the United States, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, the Trade Advisor to the British Prime Minister, the Director-General of the World Trade Organization and the Chairman and Ranking Member of the U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee.
Services are integral to all economic activity, complementing manufacturing and agriculture. Both because infrastructural services enable all other sectors to be efficient and because of the expanding need for services, services have created vast numbers of new jobs. In the decade to 2005, worldwide employment in the service sector grew from 34% to 39%.
Year after year, the services element grows in every economy. In most countries services now represents the lion's share of economic output, with productivity growth and innovation in services industries becoming more and more fundamental in driving economic growth. The fastest and most proven way for all countries to improve their services productivity is through international trade in services, yielding all the benefits that trade brings in terms of price and choice. In the current economic climate, increased international trade and investment in services are the foundation on which sustained economic recovery and expansion will be built. For this potential to be realised, the global market–opening agenda must be re-focused and re-energized.
We are glad that during the economic slowdown over the past two years, governments have not resorted to protectionism, and we urge the G20 to ensure that the commitment to free trade and movement of resources continues. At the G20 Summit in Toronto, Leaders called for progress on services trade. In their Communique, Leaders pledged to bring the Doha Round "to a balanced and ambitious conclusion as soon as possible? We direct our representatives, using all negotiating avenues, to pursue this objective?"
We have not seen enough effort to turn this clarion call into a programme of action. Yet there is no more time to lose. There is only a narrow window of opportunity between now and the G20 meeting in Seoul. The time to prepare the ground is now. The services business community needs confidence that a process will be put in place fast. We urge WTO members to find new approaches in Geneva to accelerate wider market access negotiations, before the Seoul Summit. We ask that they come prepared to engage seriously in exchanging meaningful offers.
The Seoul G20 Summit and the APEC Leaders meeting in Yokohama will shine a light on Asia's exceptional economic dynamism and resilience. For years, global flows of trade and investment have underpinned burgeoning economic growth across the region. Asia must now play a leadership role in ensuring that the WTO moves forward to advance the services trade and investment agenda. Countries in this region should also take advantage of opportunities to pursue services reform and market opening through APEC and other institutional frameworks such as the Trans Pacific Partnership.
This 2nd Global Services Summit has enriched the trade policy debate. The Global Services Coalition's statement issued today on Services and Development demonstrates clearly that services are integral to economic growth. Our services industries are committed to working with governments to realize an ambitious reform and liberalization agenda to enhance services productivity and grow the global services economy. We call on all Governments to seize the momentum and issue unequivocal instructions to negotiators to harness their collective energy to achieve this goal.