The 2012 Global Services Summit: The New Agenda will be held on Wednesday, September 19, 2012 at the Grand Hyatt Washington in Washington, DC.
The event will include a series of panel discussions and breakout sessions on topics including:
- The New Agenda for Services Liberalization
- Services Investment Liberalization: Avenues for Progress
- Defining The Challenge: Services Trade Restrictions
- Cross-Border Trade and the Digital Economy: The “Lifeblood” of Services Trade
- The Urgent Challenge Posed by State-Owned and Assisted Enterprises
- The Role of Trade Facilitation and Enhanced Logistics in the Global Value Chain
- China – Developing the Critical Services “Growth Sector”
- India – Refocusing the Dialogue
This year marks a critical turning point in the long effort to liberalize services trade and investment. A group of 20 members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) have begun discussions aimed at launching an ambitious agreement on trade in services, known informally as the International Services Agreement (ISA). Significant services commitments are now being negotiated in the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks, and the EU-US High-Level Working Group will aim to address long-standing market access barriers to services. The 2012 Global Services Summit will explore the path ahead for all of these important opportunities.
To date, confirmed speakers include U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, New Zealand Trade Minister Tim Groser, Colombian Trade Minister Sergio Diaz Granados, Mexican Secretary of the Economy Bruno Ferrari, United Kingdom Trade Minister Norman Lamb, Costa Rican Foreign Trade Minister Anabel González and other senior government, business, and opinion leaders.
Ian Bremmer, President of the Eurasia Group, also will address the Summit about Winners and Losers in a G-Zero World.
For further information and for individual registration at $250/person, go to http://uscsi.org/about-csi/global-services-summit-2012. Questions may be directed to CSI at servicessummit@uscsi.org.