Domestic regulations and India’s services exports

Abstract

Domestic regulation (DR) is an important component of international trade in services. A Working Party on Domestic Regulation (WPDR) was established in 1999 under the WTO for negotiating DR disciplines. However, since the negotiations on DR disciplines under the WPDR did not conclude, a group of WTO members launched plurilateral negotiations on DR, the Joint Statement Initiative on Services Domestic Regulation (JSI-SDR), at the 11th WTO Ministerial Conference in December 2017. These JSI-SDR negotiations were concluded in December 2021 with 67 WTO members participating in the resulting agreement, accounting for 90 percent of global services trade. The JSI-SDR covers new disciplines on licensing and qualification requirements and procedures and technical standards. Though the JSI-SDR is open for all WTO Members to join, India had decided not to join it. This paper discusses major problems faced by India’s services sector and argues that irrespective of its decision of not joining JSI-SDR, India requires domestic regulatory reforms aiming at ease of doing business, transparency, and good governance. This will help India to overcome problems faced by its services sector and thereby enhancing its services exports.