WTO move opens US gates for desi pros

NEW DELHI: Indian professionals looking for work oppurtunities in the US or other developed countries may find it easier to meet the qualification requirements there if a proposal made by a World Trade Organisation (WTO) committee gets through.

A consolidated paper of possible multilateral regulatory disciplines brought out by the WTO working committee on domestic regulations has come up with suggestions to make licensing and qualification requirements and procedures more transparent and less restrictive. The paper has pushed for mutual recognition of degrees wherever possible and has said that language skills should not be used as a unnecessary barrier for service providers.

The working paper, which is the first step towards reaching an agreement on domestic regulations under the general agreement on trade in services (GATS), will serve as the basis for the final negotiating text. The paper pointed out that divergent views existed among members on some of the mentioned points.

The services agreement is scheduled to be in place by the year-end as part of the Doha agreement on agriculture, industrial goods and services. The paper suggested that members should ensure that qualification requirements are pre-established, objective, transparent and publicly available.

Qualification requirements, including examinations, should be relevant to the activities to which they apply and should be based on objective criteria, such as competence and the ability to supply the service. On mutual recognition of degrees, the paper said that where possible, autonomous recognition should be accorded to qualifications where they are found to be equivalent to those required for the supply of a service.

Recognising that language should not be used as an unnecessary barrier for service providers, the paper proposed that each member shall ensure that any requirements of language skills for supplying a service are based on specific needs of supplying the service in general.

The paper added that while verifying and assessing qualifications, if the competent authority identifies any deficiency in an applicant’s qualifications, the applicant shall be advised of any additional requirements to meet the deficiency based on objective means such as course work, examinations, training and work experience. Members should provide the opportunity to service suppliers to fulfil such additional requirements in the home country, host country or third country, wherever possible.

Justification should be given by members in case such additional requirements can be met only in the host country.