10.8          ndian      onom
     of vital importance to India. Some of the recent              information for cross-border supply of services.
     negotiations8 are as given below.                             World Bank data shows the growing share of
                                                                   services in the world economy, the sources said,
     Wto negotiAtions                                              adding, however, that global trade flows in
     Though, the 11th Ministerial Conference                       services remain subject to numerous border and
     (MC) of the WTO ended without a Ministerial                   behind-the-border barriers (Ministry of Commerce
     Declaration or any substantive outcome, India                 and Industry).
     saw certain favourable outcome from the 10th
     MC of the multi-lateral trade body (Economic                  bilAterAl Agreements
     Survey 2017-18):                                              The bilateral agreements signed by India in recent
           (i) Implementation of preferential treatment            times are:
                in favour of services and service suppliers             (i) Comprehensive bilateral trade agreements
                of least developed countries (LDC) and                      signed, including trade in services, with
                increasing LDC participation in services                    the governments of Singapore, South
                trade;                                                      Korea, Japan and Malaysia. An FTA in
         (ii) To maintain the current practice of not                       services and investment was signed with
                imposing customs duties on electronic                       the Association of South East Asian
                transmissions (e-Commerce) until the                        Nations (ASEAN) effective since mid-
                next Ministerial Conference to be held in                   2015.
                2017.
                                                                       (ii) India has joined the RCEP (Regional
        (iii) India, together with 20 other members                         Comprehensive Economic Partnership)
                have notified preferential treatment to                     pluri- lateral negotiations. The proposed
                LDCs in services trade. India has offered                   FTA includes the 10 ASEAN countries
                this in respect of:                                         and its six FTA partners, viz. Australia,
                (a) Market access                                           China, India, Japan, South Korea and
                (b) Technical assistance and capacity                       New Zealand. The RCEP is the only
                    building; and                                           mega-regional FTA of which India is a
                (c) Waiver of visa fees for LDC applicants                  part.
                    for business and employment.                      (iii) India is also engaged in bilateral FTA
           Before the 11th MC of the WTO India made                         negotiations including trade in services
     a presentation a proposal to the WTO for a global                      with Canada, Israel, Thailand, the
     pact to boost services trade. The proposal—Trade                       EU, the EFTA (European Free Trade
     Facilitation in Services (TFS)—is mainly aimed at                      Association), Australia and New Zealand.
     ‘ensuring’—easier norms for movement of foreign                        Dialogue is under way with the US under
     skilled workers/professionals across borders for                       the India-US Trade Policy Forum (TPF),
     short-term work; portability of social security                        with Australia under the India-Australia
     contributions; reasonable fees for immigration;                        JMC (Joint Ministerial Commission),
     cross-border insurance coverage; boosting medical                      with China under the India-China
     tourism; and publication availability of relevant                      Working-Group on Services, and with
        8.    Economic Survey 2017-18, Vol. 2 & Economic Survey             Brazil under the India-Brazil Trade
              2016-17, Vol. 2, Ministry of Finance, GoI, N. Delhi.          Monitoring Mechanism (TMM).