Trade

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13 October 2009
USTR Kirk Says Services Trade Plan Essential to Trade Talks

By Merle David Kellerhals Jr.
Staff Writer

Washington — Creating new market opportunities for international services trade is essential to a successful conclusion of the 2001 Doha round of trade-liberalization talks by the end of 2010, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said.

"We know that the biggest gains to the global economy are likely to derive from multilateral services liberalization, but the offers on the table right now fail to deliver on that promise," Kirk said at the Global Services Summit held in Washington October 13.

“We have said flat-out that there will be no deal without a solid result on services which would result in new market opportunities, but we believe that a positive outcome is still achievable.”

Kirk said that one of economic goals of the Obama administration is the successful completion of the long-running Doha round of world trade talks and for congressional passage of three free-trade agreements.

“Now is the time to revive global trade, and to lay the groundwork for an even more robust, more open trading system in future decades,” Kirk said in a recent policy speech at Georgetown University. “At this moment of economic uncertainty, we should make our best effort to create the strong global trading system of tomorrow.”

The Doha Development Round is the current trade-negotiation round of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It began in November 2001 in Doha, Qatar. Its objective is to lower trade barriers around the world, which allows countries to increase trade globally. Talks have stalled over a divide on major issues, such as agriculture, industrial tariffs and nontariff barriers, services and trade remedies.

But the Group of 20 (G20) advanced economies made completion of the trade talks by the end of 2010 a central objective during recent summits in London and Pittsburgh. WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy said at a Berlin conference October 13 that the goal of completing talks by next year is still on, but there is much work still to be completed.

Kirk also said the United States has opened talks with members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum with the aim of expanding services trade throughout Asia. The United States is asking Asian trading partners to adopt new policies that will enhance cross-border services trade.

“Those conversations have become all the more important in the wake of the global economic crisis,” he said. “Competition in services can help Asian nations to improve the efficiency of their domestic markets, stimulating domestic demand and reducing their dependency on export-driven growth.”

In addition to pursuing improved trade opportunities, the United States is also working on bilateral agreements, trade investment framework agreements, and bilateral investment treaties that also include provisions for services trade, Kirk said.

Kirk said one of his primary missions is to see the Doha negotiations fulfilled to create new economic opportunities as a major contribution to global development and growth. But he added that the United States will need a clearer view of what it can expect to receive from the trade talks, and what it is expected to give.

U.S. exports accounted for a record 13 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP), the broadest measure of total goods and services, in 2008. In the three years leading up to the current economic crisis, export expansion accounted for 47 percent of overall American GDP growth, Kirk said.

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