Western countries stepped up the pressure on Brazil, China, India and others to open their legal services markets to outsiders this week, as the first stage in a new round of 'plurilateral' World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks took place.

A group of developed nations led by Australia sent the formal request pressing for a more open legal services market to a series of countries, which also included Egypt, Indonesia, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, the Philippines and Turkey.


The request asked the target jurisdictions to make new or improved commitments to allow foreign lawyers to provide legal services and establish partnerships. It also pressed them to remove restrictive rules on rights of audience, recruitment, foreign capital and setting up offices.


The request, which had been lobbied for by the Law Society, marks a new approach to negotiations that is designed to add pressure and speed up discussions - previously negotiations were on a bilateral basis. It was put forward by a 'friends group' which included Australia, the European Community, and the US. The next round of negotiations at the end of the month will involve a meeting between the group and the target countries.


Law Society head of international Alison Hook, who attended a European Services Forum mission to Geneva last month to lobby on legal services, said: 'We can be very pleased that there is now some movement on the services negotiations, and in particular that legal services have been made one of a number of key priorities against which the success of the services negotiations will be measured.'