Liberalising the provision of legal services around the globe is moving up the international agenda, with intensive negotiations set to free up lawyers more than any other profession, the deputy director-general of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) predicted last week.

Speaking at the Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA) annual conference in Geneva, Rufus Yerxa said that although little ground has been given in the first round of liberalisation offers made by countries in the current WTO talks, there was a lot of activity behind the scenes.


'Like in many other sectors, little of substance has been offered in legal services,' he said. 'However, members have been negotiating this sector intensively in bilateral and plurilateral settings, probably more than in any other profession.'


Mr Yerxa anticipated that more countries are likely to accept foreign law firms establishing a presence in their territory. 'There is a trend towards greater openness in the legal profession,' he said.


The Doha round of talks under the General Agreement on Trade in Services has been underway since 2000, with the aim of achieving greater liberalisation. Countries made initial offers last year, forming the basis of horse trading until revised offers are made in May 2005.



The European Union - which speaks on behalf of all 25 member states at the WTO - made a liberal offer on legal services and made requests to dozens of countries about restrictions they place on foreign lawyers (see [2003] Gazette, 1 May, 1).



The Doha round could give City law firms opportunities in key target countries where they are currently either banned or limited in what they can do, such as India, Korea, Japan and China.


So far, 44 WTO members have made offers on legal services. Korea, Guatemala and Fiji have done so for the first time, while 11 others have improved existing commitments made in the previous Uruguay round of negotiations. Carlos Gimeno-Verdejo, a senior official in the European Commission's trade directorate, said legal services 'are higher on the agenda than many people think'.



While there was widespread reluctance to open local professions during the Uruguay round, leading to many restrictions on international trade in legal services, 'now most of those restrictions are being targeted', he said. Switzerland, for example, is pushing for a regime similar to that within the EU.


The UIA is the smaller of the two main international legal organisations, the other being the International Bar Association.