Download or read book International Trade in Services written by Olivier Cattaneo and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2010-06-24 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The services sector is key to economic growth, competitiveness, and poverty alleviation. Comprising more than two-thirds of the world economy, services are now commonly traded across borders, helped by technological progress and the increased mobility of persons. In recent years, a number of developing countries have looked at trade in services as a means to both respond to domestic supply shortages and to diversify and boost exports. Any country can tap into the trade potential of services, but not every country can become a services hub across sectors. The opening of the services sector potentially comes with large benefits, but also fears and costs that should not be overlooked. This book provides useful guidelines for the assessment of a country s trade potential, and a roadmap for successful opening and export promotion in select services sectors. It looks at both the effects of increased imports and exports, and provides concrete examples of developing country approaches that have either succeeded or failed to maximize the benefits and minimize the risks of opening. It focuses on sectors that have been rarely analyzed through the trade lens, and/or have a fast growing trade potential for developing countries. These sectors are: accounting, construction, distribution, engineering, environmental, health, information technology, and legal services. This book is designed for non-trade specialists to understand how trade can help improve access to key services in developing countries, and for trade specialists to understand the specific characteristics of each individual sector. It will be a useful tool for governments to design successful trade opening or promotion strategies, and for the private sector and consumers to advocate sound domestic policy reforms accompanying an offensive trade agenda.
Download or read book Aid for Trade at a Glance 2017 Promoting Trade Inclusiveness and Connectivity for Sustainable Development written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2017-07-11 with total page 553 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edition focuses on trade connectivity, which is critical for inclusiveness and sustainable development. Physical connectivity enables the movement of goods and services to local, regional and global markets.
Download or read book World Development Report 2020 written by World Bank and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2019-11-19 with total page 511 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Global value chains (GVCs) powered the surge of international trade after 1990 and now account for almost half of all trade. This shift enabled an unprecedented economic convergence: poor countries grew rapidly and began to catch up with richer countries. Since the 2008 global financial crisis, however, the growth of trade has been sluggish and the expansion of GVCs has stalled. Meanwhile, serious threats have emerged to the model of trade-led growth. New technologies could draw production closer to the consumer and reduce the demand for labor. And trade conflicts among large countries could lead to a retrenchment or a segmentation of GVCs. World Development Report 2020: Trading for Development in the Age of Global Value Chains examines whether there is still a path to development through GVCs and trade. It concludes that technological change is, at this stage, more a boon than a curse. GVCs can continue to boost growth, create better jobs, and reduce poverty provided that developing countries implement deeper reforms to promote GVC participation; industrial countries pursue open, predictable policies; and all countries revive multilateral cooperation.
Download or read book Aid for Trade at a Glance 2019 Economic Diversification and Empowerment written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2019-07-11 with total page 532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edition analyses how trade can contribute to economic diversification and empowerment, with a focus on eliminating extreme poverty, particularly through the effective participation of women and youth. It shows how aid for trade can contribute to that objective by addressing supply-side capacity and trade-related infrastructure constraints, including for micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises notably in rural areas.
Download or read book Services for Trade Competitiveness written by Claire H. Hollweg and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2019-07-15 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recognizing that services affect the ability of countries and their firms to compete on international markets, the World Bank’s Trade and Regional Integration Unit has developed an extensive work program to promote the performance of countries’ domestic services sectors, including services trade. Services for Trade Competitiveness presents selected applications of new methodologies that were developed to assess the competitiveness of countries’ services sectors, discern the types of barriers to services that exist in the regulatory environment, and identify the resulting policy implications. Its assessments are designed for a wide audience, including policy makers in developing countries and development practitioners in international organizations, policy-making institutions, and academia. The purpose of this book is to help policy makers in developing countries make informed policy choices to increase their chances of benefiting from the increasing prominence of services in international trade.
Download or read book Services Trade and Growth written by Aaditya Mattoo and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2012 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The competitiveness of firms in open economies is increasingly determined by access to low-cost and high-quality producer services - telecommunications, transport and distribution services, financial intermediation, etc. This paper discusses the role of services in economic growth, focusing in particular on channels through which openness to trade in services may increase productivity at the level of the economy as a whole, industries and the firm. The authors explore what recent empirical work suggests could be done to enhance comparative advantage in the production and export of services and how to design policy reforms to open services markets to greater foreign participation in a way that ensures not just greater efficiency but also greater equity in terms of access to services.
Download or read book International Trade in Health Services and the GATS written by Chantal Blouin and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2005-09-15 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Health ministries around the world face a new challenge: to assess the risks and respond to the opportunities of the increasing openness in health services under the World Trade Organization's (WTO) General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). 'International Trade in Health Services and the GATS' addresses this challenge head-on by providing analytical tools to policymakers in health and trade ministries alike who are involved in the liberalization agenda and, specifically, in the GATS negotiations. This book informs and assists policymakers in formulating trade policy and negotiating internationally. There is ongoing and animated international debate about the impact of GATS on public services in general and health in particular. In response, the book offers different perspectives from more than 15 leading experts. Some of the authors stress opportunities linked to trade in health services, others focus more on the risks. The book offers: Detailed legal analysis of the impact of the agreement on health policy An overview of trade commitments in health-related services New empirical evidence from nine country studies A simple 10-step explanation on how to deal with GATS negotiations. 'International Trade in Health Services and the GATS' is a must-have resource for policymakers and other practitioners working in the trade and health sectors.
Download or read book Trade in Services for Development written by and published by . This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book International Trade in Services written by Mr.Alexander Lehmann and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2003-12-01 with total page 25 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper reviews the characteristics of international trade in services and of the World Trade Organization’s General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) framework, which was established to regulate it. Further liberalization of services trade in developing countries, as currently envisaged in the context of the WTO Doha Development Agenda, holds a number of potential benefits, such as underpinning the liberalization of goods trade, but it is also being resisted due to its potential adjustment costs. Two implications for IMF activities are examined: coherence among the three principal international economic institutions and sequencing with macroeconomic stabilization and regulatory reforms.
Download or read book The Development Dimensions of Trade written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2001-12-07 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This publication provides an in-depth analysis of the development dimensions of trade, with particular emphasis on the integration of non-OECD countries into the global economy.
Download or read book Services Trade and Development written by Aaditya Mattoo and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2007-03-21 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some see trade in services as irrelevant to the development agenda for least developed countries (LDCs). Others see few benefits from past market openings by LDCs. This book debunks both views. It finds that serious imperfections in Zambia's reform of services trade deprived the country of significant benefits and diminished faith in liberalization. What is to be done? Move aggressively and consistently to eliminate barriers to entry and competition. Develop and enforce regulations to deal with market failures. And implement proactive policies to widen the access of firms, farms, and consumers to services of all kinds. These lessons from Zambia are applicable to all LDCs. In all this, international agreements can help. But to succeed, LDCs mustcommit to open markets and their trading partners must provide assistance for complementary reforms. Zambia, which leads the LDC group at the World Trade Organization, can show the way.
Download or read book Services Trade in the Western Hemisphere written by Sherry M. Stephenson and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2010-12-01 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Brookings Institution Press and the Organization of American States publication The services sector—including financial services, telecommunications, transportation, tourism, and professional services—has become critical to the continued economic dynamism in the Americas. And the quality and competitiveness of this sector are essential to economic growth and development. On average, services—increasingly traded in more numerous and far-reaching ways than goods—account for nearly two-thirds of the gross domestic product of the Western Hemisphere. The importance of the sector, however, is disproportionately large in Central America and the Caribbean, where it often is the major source of employment and of foreign exchange.This timely volume is the first to review and analyze trade agreements covering the services sector in the Western Hemisphere and their relationship to the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), in force since 1995 as an integral part of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Negotiations on liberalizing services trade are continuing at the multilateral, the regional or hemispheric, and the subregional levels. It is imperative to understand what is being discussed and implemented at these different levels and to articulate the linkages and relationships among the various agreements and the disciplines and obligations they contain. Services Trade in the Western Hemisphere informs the reader about these issues and more. Part 1 deals with the main issues relevant to the liberalization of services trade at the multilateral and regional levels, including improvements to the GATS architecture, the scope of regulatory reform, the relationship between the treatment of services and investment, WTO requirements that must be fulfilled by parties to an economic integration agreement, and disagreements brought to the multilateral dispute settlement process. Part 2 examines the scope, content, and liberalizing approach of subregional agreements in the Western Hemisphere, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and those p
Download or read book International Provision of Trade Services Trade and Fragmentation written by Alan V. Deardorff and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2001 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author examines the special role that trade liberalization in services industries can play in stimulating trade in both services, and goods. International trade in goods requires inputs from such trade services as transportation, insurance, and finance, for example. Restrictions on services across borders, and within foreign countries add costs, and barriers to international trade. Liberalizing trade in services could also facilitate trade in goods, providing more benefits than one might expect from analysis merely of the services trade. To emphasize the point, the author notes that the benefits for trade are arguably enhanced by the phenomenon of fragmentation. The more that production processes become split across locations, with the fragments tied together, and coordinated by various trade services, the greater the gains from reductions in the costs of services. The incentives for such fragmentation can be greater across countries, than within countries, because of the greater differences in factor prices, and technologies. But the service costs of international fragmentation can also be larger, especially if regulations, and restrictions impede the international provision of services. As a result, trade liberalization in services can stimulate the fragmentation of production of both goods, and services, thus increasing international trade, and the gains from trade even further. Since fragmentation seems to characterize an increasing portion of world specialization, the importance of service liberalization is growing apace.
Download or read book Trade Facilitation and the Global Economy written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2018-05-30 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report discusses the benefits of trade facilitation - meant to promote transparent, predictable and straightforward border procedures so as to expedite the movement of goods. The OECD Trade Facilitation indicators provide a powerful tool for assessing the impact of related reforms and moni
Download or read book Elevating Services written by Martin Roy and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Services have long been perceived as playing a secondary role in world trade. In particular, the role of services trade policies and multilateral services commitments often tends to be downplayed. However, in value added terms, services account for about 50% of world trade and are significant in exports of countries of all levels of development. In addition, cross-border trade is expanding as a result of technological advances, and the supply of services by foreign affiliates (mode 3) exceeds trade through other modes of supply. Services trade policies, which cover a wide range of "inside-the-border" measures, are an important determinant of foreign direct investment, economy-wide productivity, manufacturing competitiveness and exports, and flows of services value added. This paper underscores, on the basis of recent services data and a growing body of research on the impact of services policies, the role of services trade in economic development, trade integration, and inclusiveness. It argues that the limited attention given to services trade policies and to international commitments is increasingly out of step with the role of services in the global economy. Indeed, services trade policies are often restrictive and multinational commitments are generally modest. Taking steps to raise the profile of services trade within government policy-making would help close this gap and highlight the contribution of services trade policy to a wide range of broader national objectives that have an important services dimension, whether SME and gender policy, or the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Download or read book Developing Countries and Preferential Services Trade written by Charlotte Sieber-Gasser and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-07-21 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A discussion of the flexibility in WTO law for developing countries and how it can be used to their economic advantage.
Download or read book Trade in Services Negotiations written by Sebasti n S ez and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2010-06-25 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book aims at contributing to address some of the challenge that developing countries, especially the least-developing countries, face in the design of trade in service policies and to provide governments with tools to better incorporate services in their export strategies, including negotiations and cooperation with trading partners, and unilateral reforms. This book helps to identify key policy challenges faced by developing country trade negotiators, regulatory policy officials and/or service suppliers. Management of both policy reforms and trade agreements requires investments in sounder regulatory regimes and the establishment of enforcement mechanisms to help countries gradually opening and mitigate any potential downside risks. A successful strategy requires a proper sequencing that through an orderly and transparent process allows to prepare for greater competition. Developing countries face serious resource and administrative constraints to adequately negotiate multiple services agreements that serve their trade interest. For many developing countries, the administrative burden of handling and negotiating multiple trade agreements has become a serious concern and this can hamper their opportunities to obtain adequate market access for their services exports. The book develops in detail the methodological framework for the construction of a database and the core elements that will comprise it, to help countries to organize and manage their services commitments. Little attention has been devoted to the organization/preparation and the development, assessment and conclusion of the negotiation process. The book presents a simulation exercise designed for policymakers, trade negotiators, and trade practitioners working in the area of services. This exercise will help them to better understand the preparatory and negotiating stages of the process leading to liberalization of trade in services.
