The Mode 4 Issue and LDCs
Reaping Development Benefits through Building Competitive Capacities and Tackling Market Access Difficulties
25th February 2009 • Co-organised with Quaker United Nations Office
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The objective of the roundtable is to deepen the substantive knowledge of policymakers and stakeholders able to influence policy decisions of (i) those services sectors and modes of supply that could act as drivers to growth and sustainable development in Least Developed Countries and (ii) the rules and flanking measures which need to be in place to realise this potential
Three studies, two commissioned by ICTSD and one by QUNO, will be presented and discussed:
Daniel Crosby will present the findings of his study ‘Advancing services export interests of Least Developed Countries: Toward GATS commitments on the temporary movement of natural persons for the supply of low-skilled and semi-skilled services’,
Sabrina Varma will share her perspective on the study ‘Facilitating Temporary labour mobility in African LDC’s: Addressing Mode 4 related Supply-side constraints’
Additionally, David Zafar Ahmed will contribute to the discussions by presenting the study he did jointly with Uri Friedman titled ‘Ensuring Temporariness: Mechanisms to Incentivise return Migration in the Context of GATS Mode 4 and Least Developed Country Interests’
The studies identify and assess the specific sectors and sub-sectors in which LDC’s have a concrete interest in supplying services, especially through the temporary movement of natural persons, an analysis which few developing countries have successfully undertaken with requisite clarity.
To prepare for future resumption of GATS negotiations on the issue of Mode 4, LDC’s would benefit from developing a stronger substantive basis for the preferential market access they seek under the Special Modalities for LDC’s. The output from this exercise will hopefully also contribute to the ongoing negotiations on trade agreements between the developed and least developed countries, including the EPAs.
David Zafar Ahmed’s Presentation
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