Within the framework of the 12th Ministerial of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, Genadi Arveladze, participated in a press conference on the issues of internal regulation in the field of services.
Last year, the 67 member states of the World Trade Organization (WTO), following the successful completion of negotiations on the internal regulation of services, adopted a declaration aimed at increasing the transparency, predictability and effectiveness of authorization procedures for business service providers in foreign markets.
According to Genadi Arveladze, Georgia joins the initiative to regulate trade in services of countries with advanced economies in order to promote transparency in the business environment.
He said that the requirements set out in the document are largely in line with the rules and procedures in place in Georgia’s internal services regulatory practice, and transparency and predictability, as well as maximum removal of bureaucratic boundaries for service providers, is one of the key approaches to Georgia’s unified liberal trade policy.
According to him, trade in services has grown significantly over the past decade and is now estimated to account for about half of total trade. Studies show that the cost of trading services is about twice as high as the cost of trading goods.
WTO members currently included in the declaration account for 90% of global services trade.
The WTO’s 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) is taking place in Geneva from June 12 to 15, 2022. Ministers from across the world has the opportunity to assess the multilateral trading system’s performance, make general statements, and take action on the WTO’s future activity.
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