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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Main Author: Mattoo, Aaditya
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
en_US
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/550241484053906427/Economics-and-law-of-trade-in-services
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25928
id okr-10986-25928
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-259282021-04-23T14:04:32Z Economics and Law of Trade in Services Mattoo, Aaditya services trade foreign direct investment WTO 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. 2017-01-25T20:22:10Z 2017-01-25T20:22:10Z 2005 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/550241484053906427/Economics-and-law-of-trade-in-services http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25928 English en_US CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Working Paper
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
en_US
topic services trade
foreign direct investment
WTO
spellingShingle services trade
foreign direct investment
WTO
Mattoo, Aaditya
Economics and Law of Trade in Services
description 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.
format Working Paper
author Mattoo, Aaditya
author_facet Mattoo, Aaditya
author_sort Mattoo, Aaditya
title Economics and Law of Trade in Services
title_short Economics and Law of Trade in Services
title_full Economics and Law of Trade in Services
title_fullStr Economics and Law of Trade in Services
title_full_unstemmed Economics and Law of Trade in Services
title_sort economics and law of trade in services
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2017
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/550241484053906427/Economics-and-law-of-trade-in-services
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25928
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