From the Newsroom
São Paulo – Brazil presented, on Monday (28), to the World Trade Organization (WTO), in Geneva (Switzerland), the country initial offer for negotiations in the service sector. The proposal will be debated in the scope of the Doha Rounds, also called "development rounds," which began in the Qatari capital in 2001.
According to the Brazilian Foreign Office (Itamaraty), the document provides privileged treatment to companies that establish offices to provide services in Brazil, a fact that, in the evaluation of the ministry of Foreign Relations, favours job generation and technological transfer.
Apart from commercial presence in the country, the negotiations involve another three kinds of representation: services provided on the internet; services provided abroad, e.g. a Brazilian who goes to the dentist in the United States; and foreign professionals who want to work in a country.
These modes of service supply are also contemplated in the Brazilian proposal, as is the possibility of exploration of other sectors such as market and public opinion research administrative consultancy, and building cleaning has also been forecasted. But the country main interest is in company physical presence in the country.
According to the Itamaraty, the new offer represents an advance with regard to the proposal presented in 1994 at the closing of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) "Uruguay rounds."
In the offer presented on Monday, informed the Itamaraty, Brazil included the possibility of opening a series of sub-sectors in the area of professional services, such as consultancy, market and public opinion research, service analysis, and technical tests, equipment maintenance and repairs, photographic services, among others. There have also been "advances" in the sectors of tourism, civil construction, trade services, and sports.
"The offer simultaneously safeguards the Brazilian capacity to formulate public policies for development in the industrial, technological, social, and environmental areas," informed an Itamaraty statement.
The statement adds that negotiations in the service sector "must necessarily be balanced with advances obtained in agriculture and other areas." Agricultural subsidies offered by developed countries are among the matters that generate most conflict in WTO negotiations.
Finally, the Itamaraty document states that in the service sector "greater attention must be paid to the demands of developing countries," with the simplification of circulation of qualified workers, i.e., professionals from developing countries interested in working in developed nations.
"This offer shows Brazilian trust in the perspectives of evolutions of WTO negotiations," finished the statement.
