Bangalore: Swedish Minister of Trade and Industry Leif Pagrotsky on April 3 said the recent arrest of i-flex Solutions Netherlands subsidiary chief Senthil Kumar was a "non-tariff barrier" against the developing world.

"Obviously this is imposition of a non-tariff barrier against providing services, which is fundamentally driven by individuals," Pagrotsky told reporters.

He made the comment when asked if Kumar's arrest in London at the behest of Dutch authorities, was a "neo-non-tariff barrier" against India to protect local jobs in the IT sector.

Pagrotsky said services were largely driven by individuals and the arrest "showed the obvious".

"In terms of goods, you can apply barriers to restrict movements. But in order to deliver services a person should move to the location," he said.

He said Europe was "generally closed" in issuing visas.

"It is also not easy to get visas for the United States or Japan. To solve this, we need to have a new multilateral agreement in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to include services," Pagrotsky said.

He said the last General Agreement on Trade and Tariff (GATT) framed in the 1980s was not in pace with the growing changes in the world.

Pagrotsky said he hoped in the next round of WTO talks in September this year, efforts to include services and extending work permit from three to six months would be discussed.

"The effort is to bring in a visa permit to extend work from three to six months. This will avoid issues," he said.

PTI