UNCTAD´s new publication Energy and Environmental Services: Negotiating Objectives and Development Priorities provides insights and analysis of the negotiating positions taken by the WTO Member countries on energy and environmental services within the ongoing GATS negotiations. Readers will get a better understanding of what is at stake in the negotiations by learning about the business trends, the major market players and the national strategies in these two service sectors which have a huge economic value and immediate links with economic growth and investment, country competitiveness and, ultimately, sustainable development.
The papers included in this publication emerged primarily from two intergovernmental gatherings organized by UNCTAD within the Expert Meetings mechanism. The 12 contributions on energy services discuss how increasing demand for investment, the introduction of new technologies and the liberalization of the energy markets have created a new dynamism in this sector and opened the way to the delivery and cross-border trade of an increasing number of energy services. On the other hand, they also highlight the plight of one third of humanity, mainly in the rural areas of poor countries, who still has no access to commercial energy sources. The papers present also the successful experiences in some energy-producing countries in developing domestic capacities in the energy services sector as a central element in their development strategies.
The four contributions on environmental services analyze how this sector, which went through deregulation and privatisation, is now offering lucrative business opportunities for services providers. The papers highlight the efforts that should be made to link the growing dynamism of the sector, resulting from its structural reform and emerging as well from the WTO Doha Work Programme, to the fulfilment of people´s basic environmental needs, especially in developing countries.
The WTO services negotiations have entered into their most crucial phase - the formulation of requests and offers. All countries, but especially developing countries, may draw on the information and analysis included in this publication to assess the options available to them when developing their own requests and offers and evaluating the requests and offers presented by other WTO Member. Moreover, this publication will guide them thorough the linkages between the services negotiations and the other WTO negotiations which have a bearing on energy and environmental policies.
Quick Link: Ad Hoc Expert Meeting on energy services to be held on 6 June 2003
