Part of an April 8-9 World Trade Organization symposium to...

to speak with press told us. Research has indicated that people in least developing countries were using mobiles, not computers, for e-commerce, she said. Officials are putting the final touches on the program, which is expected to be made public next week, a WTO spokesman said. E-commerce and cloud computing are significant in negotiations ramping up for a international services agreement, Peter Allgeier, president of the Coalition of Service Industries, told us. Services proponents are trying to boost national involvement in negotiations with the aim of increasing the amount of world trade in services that would be covered by the agreement. The agreement is not being negotiated in the WTO. A proposal by Cuba and Ecuador to the WTO in July referred to the aim of boosting access to, and spurring “the free flow of the technologies,” for use of e-commerce by small and medium enterprises. A separate WTO symposium on services, possibly in June, may address network buildout and spectrum for e-commerce, the trade official told us. The focus will be on future services trends and best practices, she said. Another e-commerce symposium is expected toward the end of the year. Establishing WTO services sub-committees and setting up meetings by sector could attract the experts needed to discuss the issues in “an intelligent way,” she said. The usual WTO participants aren’t competent to discuss spectrum use and other telecom matters, she said. Experts won’t attend a day-long meeting if only a tiny portion deals with spectrum or telecom, she said, because budgets are too tight.