WTO moots special visa for service sector

NEW DELHI: While the ongoing negotiations on opening up of the services sector has not made much progress, World Trade Organization officials have mooted the idea of a special category visa for professionals travelling from one country to another for delivery of services.

To be named as GATS (general agreement on trade in services) visa, the proposed instrument is to enable ‘commercial’ activity so that professionals obtain their travel documents without difficulty.

If accepted, the proposal will benefit countries like India, that have a huge manpower, in tapping the rapidly-growing international market for services. For the new visa to work effectively, countries need to put in a place a proper system that will treat professionals differently from those seeking tourist or immigration visa.

The move is significant, coming at a time when countries like Saudi Arabia are imposing new employment restrictions, and even the US is planning to prevent outsourcing of IT business.

Roderick Abbott, deputy director general of WTO, said on Tuesday that the proposed GATS visa will solve many problems related to movement of professionals.

“We are considering a GATS visa for services, which can serve as a special category visa, allowing service professionals to travel to other countries for a certain period of time. The main objective of such as visa would be to distinguish movement of people travelling to other countries for work and not for seeking permanent residence,� Mr Abbott said during an informal interaction with the reporters here.

He admitted there had been little progress on delivery of services through mode-4, which pertained to movement of natural persons.

“Immigration needs to be dealt with as a commercial issue by countries. However, there is a hesitation since countries, particularly those afflicted by terrorism, are keen to regulate the flow of foreigners.�

Asked about the areas that India should focus on in the ongoing service negotiations, he said that India must push for specific commitments in areas like software from countries like Japan.

Referring to the issues of investment and competition, Mr Abbott said that the working group on investment had made good progress, and so far 30 papers had been submitted.

The main objective of having investment and competition under the WTO would be to ensure that the foreign company is not put at a disadvantage by the local government.

The WTO official clarified there was no possibility of labour being included at any stage in the negotiations.

“As far as labour is concerned, it is a dead issue. There is no need to fear that labour can be used as a form of sanctions,� he said, adding that there was a near consensus that labour-related issues should be dealt with by the International Labour Organisation.