The drive towards liberalisation of access to legal markets in India, the US and the Far East shifted up several gears last month as a new negotiating process and a tight timetable were agreed at World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks in Hong Kong.

The talks secured an accord on the next steps towards achieving liberalisation, which will involve a new 'plurilateral' approach. This means that negotiations will now be undertaken by groups of countries, rather than on a bilateral basis. A deadline for draft final schedules resulting from the discussions has been set for October 2006.


The Law Society's head of EU and WTO affairs, June O'Keeffe, said: 'There are 149 members of the WTO, and the bilateral approach has been tried, and has not worked. The plurilateral approach will add more pressure. If you have, say, the EU, the US and Australia all telling a [developing] country that they want it to open up its market, that will have more impact than if just one country is saying it.


'But it depends on how far the negotiations go, and a lot is tied up with the concessions the developing countries are looking for on agriculture. It depends on how far the EU is prepared to go on that.'


Ms O'Keeffe added that the fact that Indian commerce minister Kamal Nath had quickly declared the outcome of the Hong Kong round to be a success was significant. However, Brazil's negotiator on services indicated that much greater concessions were needed on agriculture before it would move on services. China did not give any positive signs on liberating its services market further.


Ms O'Keeffe said: There are signs that India may open up its market, which would be a major coup. That is a market we have been negotiating with for years and years.


'This is reasonably positive, and the talks did actually come up with an agreement in Hong Kong, unlike the Cancun talks, which ended in disaster.'


Tomas Baert, a sector expert in legal services at the European Commission, said: 'The EU has strong offensive interests in the area of services, and has been able to pursue and achieve ambitious outcomes.


'The timetable is tight indeed, and that is a challenge. But most member states are aware that we will have to work hard and make an effort to take concrete steps in the plurilateral negotiations.'


Jonathan Goldsmith, secretary-general of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe, also expressed relief that the round had been saved. He added: 'There is a lot of work for us to do very quickly.'


Meanwhile, a Department for Constitutional Affairs spokesman said: 'We are encouraged that the declaration re-emphasised the importance of the services negotiations, both in their own right and as part of a balanced outcome to the Doha round.'