Press Release: Trade in services. EU and others launch ‘plurilateral’ process to boost Doha services negotiations, Brussels, 28 February 2006

The EU and other developed and developing country WTO partners submitted 28 February 2006 new market access requests in several services sectors as part of the DDA negotiations in services. These joint requests mark the beginning of the "plurilateral" negotiations in services as agreed by WTO members at last December’s WTO Ministerial meeting in Hong-Kong. The EU now expects others to respond to the EU’s requests so as to ensure substantial revised offers are tabled by the agreed date of the end of July. The outcome should result in increased growth of world trade in services, which is key both for development worldwide and for employment in the EU.