Expert sees low chance of WTO temporary worker deal

GENEVA (Reuters) - Global trade negotiations on the services sector are likely to make little progress on a core demand of developing countries -- greater freedom of movement for temporary workers, an expert said on Thursday.

The forecast, if confirmed, suggests rich countries will struggle to crack open new markets for services from banking to telecoms, in return for which poor nations want to see rules on temporary workers liberalised.

Rupa Chanda, an economics professor at Bangalore's Indian Institute of Management, said countries preferred to negotiate temporary labour movement bilaterally, rather than in the global Doha round talks at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

"Some of these issues are so complex to discuss multilaterally that bilaterally you would expect much more progress," she told a news conference.

Chanda said there was some chance of liberalisation for temporary workers at the executive or management level in a WTO deal, but little prospect for low-skilled workers.

She was speaking at the launch of a report she compiled for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on temporary cross-border movement of service providers, known in trade jargon as Mode 4.

"WTO member countries have shown little interest in liberalising market access to labour flows for the low-skilled workers on a multilateral basis, and they are reluctant to make binding commitments since migration has a bearing on sensitive issues such as national security, integration and unemployment," the UNDP said in a statement.

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