Economics and Law of Trade in Services
Services are the fastest growing sector of the global economy, and trade and foreign direct investment in services have grown faster than in goods over the past decade. Technological progress has greatly enhanced the scope for trade in conventional...
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/550241484053906427/Economics-and-law-of-trade-in-services http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25928 |
| Summary: | Services are the fastest growing sector
of the global economy, and trade and foreign direct
investment in services have grown faster than in goods over
the past decade. Technological progress has greatly enhanced
the scope for trade in conventional services, such as
education and finance, and also created a host of new
tradable services,such as software development and internet
access. Moreover, liberalization in many countries is leading
for the first time to the private and foreign provision of
services such as telecommunications, transport, and finance.
The performance of the services sectors can make the
difference between rapid and sluggish growth.But the benefits
from liberalization are not automatic. Multilateral
engagement can be an important catalyst for liberalization.
Even though governments can initiate reforms of services
individually, multilateral engagement can help in two ways.
First, international negotiations, for example under the
General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), could help
accelerate domestic reform and improve access to foreign
markets for developing countries. However, for
these negotiations to be fruitful, all countries must
recognize mutual interests in reciprocal liberalization.
Developing countries must see advantages of multilateral
agreement to increase competition, to enhance credibility of
potential domestic reform and to strengthen domestic
regulation.In parallel, global cooperation is needed to
provide support for developing countries at four levels: in
devising sound policy, strengthening the domestic regulatory
environment,enhancing their participation in the development
of international standards and in ensuring access to
essential services in the poorest areas. |
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