* US companies eager for new ideas to boost service trade
* India trade minister faces anxious audience
* Former USTR urges comprehensive services initiative
By Doug Palmer
WASHINGTON, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Farm and manufacturing issues long at the center of world trade talks will take a back seat to finance, telecommunication and other service sectors at a meeting here this week that has attracted top trade officials from the United States, European Union and India.
Bob Vastine, president of the Coalition of Service Industries, said he hopes to hear new ideas from U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and others for increasing global services trade, both inside and outside of the Doha round.
"Nobody wants Doha to fail ... But we are indeed looking for other ways forward," said Vastine, whose groups is hosting the "global services summit" on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Services account for more than two-thirds of the U.S. economy and almost 30 percent of U.S. exports, which totaled nearly $1.83 trillion dollars in 2008.
But agriculture has dominated the Doha round since it was launched in the capital city of Qatar on Nov. 14, 2001, with the goal of helping poor countries prosper through trade.
That reflected demands on the United States and the EU to offer big cuts in trade-distorting farm subsidy and tariffs before developing countries detailed their own concessions.
Manufacturing concerns have received more attention in recent years but services talks still lag far behind.
KIRK ON TUESDAY, LAMY ON WEDNESDAY
Kirk kicks off the event on Tuesday with a speech that Vastine said he hopes will make clear that major developing countries will have to open some of their service markets as part of a Doha deal.
European Commissioner Catherine Ashton, Indian Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean and others then hold a roundtable on services trade.
"We have finally stepped over the threshold into the main ring," Vastine said.
India's refusal to say what service sectors it could open for more trade has been frustrating for the United States, especially in the face of New Delhi's politically difficult demand that Congress grant more temporary-entry visas for Indian software engineers and other professionals.
"They've never told what us they're going to offer. What are they going to give us back? ... We hope to hear from India, Mr. Sharma, some progressive ideas about resolving some problems," Vastine said.
WTO Director General Pascal Lamy, who the Coalition of Service Industries once feared wanted to diminish the importance of services to a final Doha agreement, will address the group on Wednesday morning.
Charlene Barshefsky, who was U.S. Trade Representative under former President Bill Clinton, said the Obama administration should design a "comprehensive market-opening program" for services that looks beyond Doha.
One option would be a services trade initiative among a group of "like-minded countries" that then could be brought back to the WTO for others to join, she said.
"I think there needs to be a push to complete Doha, but the clock is ticking on Doha. There's only so long that one can wait for a serious services initiative," said Barshefsky, who will speak to the conference on late Tuesday. (Editing by Mohammad Zargham)