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“This is an important new initiative, and one we will be following closely at USCIB,” said Rob Mulligan, USCIB’s senior vice president for Washington. “Services are an enormous and growing part of our economy and our overall trade. The opportunities to drive U.S. economic growth and jobs through a services plurilateral are quite significant.”
Mulligan said advancing the new services talks would be an important objective in USCIB’s trade and investment policy agenda for 2013. Other top priorities include concluding the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks, starting negotiations on a U.S.-EU trade and investment agreement, addressing forced localization regulations and expanding product coverage under the WTO Information Technology Agreement.
Among the other parties expected to take part in the talks are Canada, the European Union, Japan, Korea and Mexico. One country that is not an initial party to the negotiations is China. In 2006, USCIB and the United States Council Foundation published a study on U.S.-China trade in services, which foresaw growing export opportunities for services. According to USTR, the U.S. had a services trade surplus with China of $13 billion in 2011.
“Obviously, the opportunities in China and other emerging markets are tremendous,” said Mulligan. “But we understand and appreciate the need to work with like-minded countries to achieve the most ambitious liberalization possible. Hopefully other countries would join a services agreement down the road.”
Staff contact: Rob Mulligan
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