Abstract:

Developing countries need to ensure that multilateral rules and commitments on trade in services contribute to economically rational policymaking at the national and international levels. This paper shows that India’s modest participation during Uruguay /Doha Round negotiations, and assumption of defensive positions, has not been conducive to the achievement of this goal in the Telecommunication sector.In this context, this paper argues that developing countries such as India have created niche for themselves in particular services exports and, therefore, should actively participate in the negotiations to remove barriers in sectors/modes of their trade interest.The commitments of developing countries should take into account the inter-sectoral and intermodal linkages. Lastly, the paper stresses on the need for complementary domestic reforms which would enable developing countries to gain from multilateral liberalization.The paper presents some of the results in progress, and seeks to identify the issues on which we need to improve our understanding.