South Centre participates in Information sharing workshop with Cabinet and Parliament of Uganda

At the request of Uganda’s Minister of Tourism Trade and Industry through their Permanent Mission in Geneva, Joy Kategekwa the inhouse trade expert within South Centre, participated as a technical resource person in the national information sharing seminar with the Cabinet and Parliament of Uganda held from 13-16 August.

South Centre was asked to deal with trade in services and assess whether there are any benefits for Uganda in the WTO. In this context, Ms. Kategewka made a presentation on the GATS, general rules and principles, the positioning of Uganda in the GATS, its schedule of commitments and implications thereof, challenges faced in the negotiations, the potentiality of negotiations achieving an outcome that can deliver on the aspirations of Uganda’s services sector export strategy and some thoughts as to what can be done to achieve Uganda’s ambitions in these negotiations.

Some of the key questions posed in the area of services related to how Uganda can use the WTO to open markets for semi-skilled workers, how better information on the market specifics in key markets can be obtained, how Uganda can build capacity to supply services in niche sectors, and how flexibilities in the GATS relate to the EPAs?