Download or read book Services Trade Reform Making Sense Of It written by Philippa Dee and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2013-09-13 with total page 469 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations moribund, it is time to reconsider the future of trade negotiations as an impetus for reform. Services trade is a leading-edge behind-the-border issue, so a services perspective offers critical insights into the future of trade negotiations more generally. This book traces the author's thinking on how to make sense of services trade reform, drawing on her analytical, empirical and policy-related work on services issues from both academic and government perspectives. It covers policy reform, policy forums, and what it takes politically to achieve reform, and offers critical new insights into the future of trade negotiations.The book shows policy makers how to approach the economics and politics of services trade reform domestically, consistent with relevant special features of services trade. It shows analysts the full policy implications of those special features, including what they mean and how services reform should be treated in the future in national and international forums. In covering such broad territory, the book draws together published material that previously has been scattered across place and time, including modelling that establishes empirically the special features of services that are relevant.

Download or read book Services Trade Policies and the Global Economy written by OECD. and published by . This book was released on 2017-06-08 with total page 103 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book synthesises recent work by the OECD analysing services trade policies and quantifying their impacts on imports and exports, the performance of manufacturing and services sectors, and how services trade restrictions influence the decisions and outcomes of firms engaged in international markets. Based on the OECD Services Trade Restrictiveness Index (STRI) - a unique, evidence-based tool that provides snapshots of regulations affecting trade in services in 22 sectors across 44 countries (representing over 80% of global trade in services) - the analysis highlights the magnitude, nature and impact of the costs entailed by restrictive services trade policies. The new evidence uncovered is meant to inform trade policy makers and the private sector about the likely effects of unilateral or concerted regulatory reforms and help prioritise policy action.

Download or read book Services Trade Policies and the Global Economy written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2017-06-08 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book synthesises recent work by the OECD analysing services trade policies and quantifying their impacts on imports and exports, the performance of manufacturing and services sectors, and how services trade restrictions influence the decisions and outcomes of firms engaged in international ...

Download or read book Digital trade and U S trade policy written by Rachel F. Fefer and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 39 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Services Trade and Growth written by Aaditya Mattoo and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2008 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: 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 Digital Trade and U s Trade Policy written by Rachel Fefer and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-01-25 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the rules of global Internet develop and evolve, digital trade has risen in prominence on the global trade and economic agenda, but multilateral trade agreements have not kept pace with the complexities of the digital economy. The economic impact of the Internet was estimated to be $4.2 trillion in 2016, making it the equivalent of the fifth-largest national economy. According to one source, the volume of global data flows grew 45-fold from 2005 to 2014, faster than international trade or financial flows. Digital trade includes end-products like movies and video games and services such as email. Digital trade also enhances the productivity and overall competitiveness of an economy. According to the U.S. International Trade Commission, U.S. domestic and international digital trade added 3.4 - 4.8% ($517.1-$710.7 billion) to the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) in 2011. The Department of Commerce found that in 2014, digitally delivered services accounted for more than half of U.S. services trade. The increase in digital trade also raises new challenges in U.S. trade policy, including how to best address new and emerging trade barriers. As with traditional trade barriers, digital trade constraints can be classified as tariff or nontariff barriers. In addition to high tariffs, barriers to digital trade may include localization requirements, cross border data flow limitations, intellectual property rights (IPR) infringement, unique standards or burdensome testing, filtering or blocking, and cybercrime exposure or state-directed theft of trade secrets. Congress has an important role to play in shaping global digital trade policy, from oversight of agencies charged with regulating cross-border data flows to shaping and considering legislation to implement new trade rules and disciplines through ongoing trade negotiations, and also working with the executive branch to identify the right balance between digital trade and other policy objectives, including privacy and national security.

Download or read book Trade Reform and Household Welfare written by Elena Ianchovichina and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1999 with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Results from a two-step simulation that uses a computable general equilibrium model and detailed consumption and income household data suggests that trade liberalization benefits people in the poorest deciles more than those in the richer ones.

Download or read book Priorities and Pathways in Services Reform written by Philippa S. Dee and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2013 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a state-of-the-art evaluation of the benefits and costs of behind-the-border services reform. It introduces new, second-generation methods for quantifying regulatory barriers and applies those methods to a wide range of services sectors OCo financial, infrastructure and social OCo in a broad spectrum of countries. It uses advanced modeling techniques to project the sectoral, economy-wide and regional effects of services reforms, as well as highlight their adjustment costs. The empirical results offer fresh guidance to policy-makers, who need better information bases with which to prioritize services reforms and devise pathways to achieving them. The empirical methods provide invaluable tools to academics, researchers and policy advisors, who can use them to further improve those information bases. Priorities and Pathways in Services Reform: Part I OCo Quantitative Studies presents new methodological frameworks for assessing and prioritizing services reforms, and provides an up-to-date evaluation of the policy impacts across a range of services markets and countries. Part II OCo Political Economy furthers the conversation by analyzing what it takes for a reform to succeed.

Download or read book Services In Global Value Chains Manufacturing related Services written by Patrick Low and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2016-06-21 with total page 784 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This compilation of 22 firm-specific case studies is an important contribution to the discussion of 'servicification' trends in manufacturing. 'Services have increased in importance and value in many manufacturing value chains, making companies that produce physical products look more like service enterprises. What services do global value chains use in their operations, how important are they and how do economic policies shape firms' configurations, operations, and location of global value chains? This book addresses these questions and more.The interviewed firms, based in 12 APEC economies, come from different sectors ranging from multinational automotive, construction equipment, and electrical appliance manufacturers to small and medium manufacturers of watches or chemical for water treatment. The book analyses what specific services are important in different stages of the value chain, and whether they are typically provided in-house or outsourced.

Download or read book Reinvigorating Trade and Inclusive Growth written by International Monetary Fund and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2018-09-30 with total page 43 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Trade integration can play a much larger role in boosting shared prosperity. The current focus on trade tensions threatens to obscure the great untapped benefits possible from further trade reform. The opportunities provided by information technology and other fundamental changes in the global economy are yet to be reflected in modern areas of trade policy, such as services and electronic commerce. Greater openness in these areas would promote competition, lift productivity, and raise living standards. In many other areas, such as the rural economy, smaller enterprises, and women’s economic empowerment, trade-related reforms are important particularly to foster more inclusive growth. Harnessing flexible approaches to WTO negotiations may be the key to reinvigorating global trade reform. Despite the benefits at stake—and with important exceptions such as the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement—trade reform has lagged since the early 2000s. For much of this period, governments focused their efforts in the WTO on a single negotiating approach. Now, as groups of WTO members pursue joint initiatives in several areas, attention is turning to how other negotiating approaches—including some used effectively in the past—can be leveraged so that trade once again plays its full role in driving increased global economic prosperity. Building greater, more durable openness—this paper’s focus—should be part of a broader effort to strengthen and reinvest in the global trading system. The system of global trade rules that has nurtured unprecedented economic growth across multiple generations faces tensions. Though only recently brought to the fore, those tensions are rooted in issues that have been left unresolved for too long. Governments need to promptly address outstanding questions involving, for example, the WTO dispute system and the reach of subsidy disciplines. Cooperative action to secure greater openness—an imperative in its own right—could also help to resolve these"

Download or read book Past Liberalization and Future Challenges of Service Trade written by Ishita Chatterjee and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If a government is concerned about this it could require foreign banks to establish local subsidiaries that must satisfy local capital adequacy requirements. But this presupposes that there is effective regulation and an effective regulator that considers the potential effects of different forms of liberalization. Another example is when there are significant rents associated with a certain policies. Regulatory agencies may argue that it is better that these accrue to domestic agents than to foreign firms, even if the latter are more efficient providers of services. The name of the game in trade negotiations is market access: this may easily result in a transfer of rents from local firms to foreign ones if the regulatory regime is not one that ensures markets are contestable. The implication is that broader regulatory reform is in many cases needed to ensure that welfare increases after liberalization. In general, improved prudential and pro-competitive regulation will be necessary to deliver the full benefits of liberalization in sectors such as financial services; basic telecommunications and other network-based services. Thus, attention should focus on strengthening and maintaining a robust capacity to identify, understand and design the domestic regulatory reforms that are needed to enhance the efficiency of services sectors. Addressing regulatory concerns and constraints: Given the importance of regulation as a source of market segmentation, cooperation on regulatory matters is needed for trade agreements to do more than be a mechanism to lock-in applied policies and “harvest” unilateral actions by governments to open markets. One dimension of such cooperation is international assistance for national regulatory reform and strengthening implementing institutions so as to increase the prospects of achieving efficiency and equity objectives. This is a process that takes time and that will benefit substantially from information on the approaches and experiences of other countries that have (had) similar challenges. There is not necessarily any regulatory “best practice” for a sector or cluster of activities - in many cases there will be many options and countries need to figure out the approach most appropriate to their circumstances and needs. Once a reform path has been defined, implementation could be assisted by external assistance from high-income partners in North-South PTAs or development agencies as part of the multilateral “aid for trade” initiative. International dialogue and exchange of information and experiences - as is done through APEC - is another option. While APEC has often been criticized for being a “talking shop” the process has been effective in facilitating learning about country experiences and building trust among governments and regulators from participating countries. Better regulation will often be a precondition for action to open markets to greater competition, as well as for greater trade in instances where recognition of, or convergence in, regulatory norms is required to permit foreign firms to contest the domestic market. Another type of cooperation is between regulators and is explicitly focused on expanding market access opportunities: aiming to address regulatory externalities that impede greater trade in services. The types of externalities that may arise will differ depending on the service activity. More cooperation on prudential regulation may be a precondition for trade in financial services and in information-based services to occur - for example, regulators may need to converge on a set of regulatory or data protection standards and establish that such standards are enforced. Competition agencies may need to have assurances that pro-competitive regulations apply in partner markets to ensure that gains from liberalization are not appropriated by international oligopolies. Particularly important is cooperation between regulatory agencies in host and source countries to allow greater temporary cross-border movement of natural persons that provide services - the experience of a number of successful bilateral labor agreements demonstrates that this is a precondition for arrangements that expand the “circular flow” of people. Mutual recognition of licenses and certification will often be another part of the equation. Sometimes there is no good reason to hold back on liberalization even when regulatory reforms and access widening policies take time to implement. This is true for reforms that are “additive” in that the benefit from trade reform is independent of the benefit from domestic reforms and each can be undertaken separately. Thus, for example, the powerful growth of mobile telephony even in institutionally weak countries like Somalia suggests that there is no economic reason to wait to liberalize until a universal access policy is put in place say in telecommunications. In other cases reforms are “multiplicative” in that a country would benefit more from trade reform if domestic reforms were also implemented (and vice versa), but the order in which the two are implemented does not matter. Thus, regulatory improvements and competition in transport are mutually beneficial but the sequence is probably not critical. However, in a number of situations, “sequences matter” in that if a country implements trade reform before the necessary domestic reform, then the long-term payoffs will be lower than if the opposite sequence had been followed. This can be for both economic and political reasons. In these situations, if the complementary reform cannot be implemented instantaneously, then there is a case for gradual liberalization. For example, in countries like Zambia and South Africa, the failure to introduce full competition in a sector such as telecommunications made it much more difficult to implement effective regulation because of the excessive economic and political power of a monopolistic incumbent. In other sectors the problem has rather been too much competition too early leading to a form of “regulatory overshooting”. For example, allowing new entry in banking without creating a mechanism to sift the sound institutions from the dubious led to disruptions that have had a durable effect on the development of the financial sector in many countries: the once-bitten depositor is skeptical of the benefits of banking and the once-bitten central bank excessively prudent with stability the main concern. The result has been the implementation of excessively stringent regulation that has itself become an impediment to access. Fora for learning and communication: “knowledge platforms”: There are two specific dimensions to the broad challenge of national regulatory cooperation and services policy reform: (i) addressing knowledge gaps - increasing information on regulatory experiences and impacts and identifying alternative options/good practices; and (ii) identifying the impact of - and the options for dealing with - the political economy constraints that impede the implementation of welfare improving reforms. A number of analysts including Geza Feketekuty (2010), one of the “fathers” of the GATS, have suggested that efforts to improve market access opportunities need to be complemented by other approaches. Feketekuty argues for a mechanism to share experiences.

Download or read book Services Trade Reform written by Dee Philippa and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2013 with total page 469 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book shows policy makers how to approach the economics and politics of services trade reform domestically, consistent with relevant special features of services trade. It shows analysts the full policy implications of those special features, including what they mean and how services reform should be treated in the future in national and international forums.

Download or read book State of Trade in Services and Service Trade Reform in Southern Africa written by Manenga Chilala Ndulo and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Services and U S Trade Policy written by John N. Yochelson and published by . This book was released on 1982-01-01 with total page 31 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Trade in Financial Services written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Financial Services. Subcommittee on International Monetary Policy and Trade and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

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 Lessons in Trade Policy Reform written by Vinod Thomas and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Trade reform programs have two main objectives. The first is to help raise economic growth and employment generation by improving resource allocation and economywide efficiency. The second is to help improve the balance of payments by strengthening the competitiveness of the external sector and expanding exports and efficient import substitutes. This paper evaluates developing country experience with trade policy reforms and makes recommendations for improving the design and implementaion of those reforms. It assesses the extent and effectiveness of the reforms under adjustment programs in the 1980s, highlighting practical problems and constraints, both economic and politcal. Broadly speaking, it considers three issues: (1) the potential conflicts between trade policy reforms and macroeconomic stabilization efforts; (2) the supply response to trade policy reforms, in the context of export prospects and domestic and external constraints; and (3) the sequencing, timing and duration of import reforms, their relation to internal reforms, and the associated transitional costs. The paper finds that trade policy reform, when implemented well, has contributed to improved economic performance in developing countries. The paper also finds that well-designed trade policy reforms do not conflict with other priorites except in special cases; usually they enhance growth.