Philippine Services Coalition

The "Philippine Services Coalition" is a 12-month project being undertaken by the Philippine Government with funding assistance from the International Trade Center, an UNCTAD Agency. I attended today's kick-off meeting, chaired by UnderSecretary Edsel Custodio of the Department of Foreign Affairs.

The objective of the project is to come up with a list of "offers" and "requests" in connection with the WTO's ongoing round of trade negotiations. In any type of negotiation, one comes to the negotiating table with two lists:
- what I'm willing to give to the other party (offers), and
- what I need from the other party (requests).

The ongoing round of WTO trade talks is focused on services, including IT and IT-enabled services. Hence, the inclusion of the CICT on the project team for the Philippine Services Coalition! Over the next few months, I'll be calling on the private sector to provide inputs in developing the list of offers and requests, so keep tuned! In the meantime, learn more about the WTO below.

"The World Trade Organization (WTO)is the only international organization dealing with the global rules of trade between nations. Its main function is to ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible." from the WTO website

Prior to the establishment of the WTO in 1995, countries would enter into agreements with each other as a result of long, drawn-out bilateral or multilateral trade talks. These talks were referred to as GATT, or General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. The series of trade negotiations to come up with an agreeement are called "rounds", such as the 1986-94 Uruguay Round. The Uruguay Round led to the WTO’s creation.

The current round of talks is called the Doha Round, after the Fourth WTO Ministerial Conference was held in Doha, Qatar in November 2001. More on the WTO, if you're interested:
- Ten misunderstandings on the WTO (from WTO website)
- Ten benefits of the WTO (from WTO website)
- Criticisms of the WTO
- More criticism