"While the 1990s have seen a fundamental change for the better, the services trade remains highly restricted in many areas," assistant US trade representative (USTR) Joseph Papovich told the House of Representatives panel on telecommunications, trade and consumer protection."This significantly inhibits American exports, the costs to the world of closed markets in services are far greater," he said.

The American services sector includes a vast array of industries: from finance and telecommunications to distribution, health, education, environment, travel and tourism, construction, law, engineering, architecture and more. These industries provide 86 million private sector jobs and over $5.5 trillion worth of production-more than 75 per cent of US private sector economic production and more than one dollar in every seven dollars of world production.

Among the goals Papovich said he will try to accomplish with regard to trade in services at the Seattle meet from November 30 to December 3 was a deepening of commitments to liberalise financial and telecommunications services beyond the 1997 treaties while seeking lower barriers in services involving distribution, audiovisual, construction, tourism, the professions, education, health, express delivery, energy and environmental sciences.He would also press for talks to ensure that service rules do not hinder the development of new technologies. "Service providers in years to come will find many new opportunities to use new technologies to deliver their products overseas and should not encounter discrimination based on choice of technology," he said.

Papovich would also like to see a bid to prevent discrimination against particular modes of delivering services, such as electronic commerce. The Clinton administration wants the WTO to agree to an "indefinite moratorium" of taxation on electronic commerce, he added.

The US also wants to increase participation in the Basic Telecommunications and Financial Services Agreements, especially among African countries. Besides, Papovich said, the US would not concede to the European Union's (EU's) attempts to classify all digital products as services. With regard to the Internet piracy, Papovich said he had just completed a tour of six countries known to be making illegal reproductions of copyrighted property. He said he had urged those countries to ban facilities that reproduced copyrighted products.

"We are working with the EU towards an agreement setting a framework for negotiating Mutual Recognition Agreements-that is, agreeing to recognise accreditation or licensing granted under one another's regulatory standards, in services fields, as appropriate," Papovich said. The United States bilateral work in Japan had similar goals, he added. "Our initiatives are aimed at improving access for US firms and professionals to Japan's vast market, through negotiation and enforcement of agreements covering such sectors as insurance and telecommunications," he said.