book

Opening Markets for Trade in Services, Countries and Sectors in Bilateral and WTO Negotiations

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The Uruguay Round of trade negotiations, from 1996 to 1994, market, to a great extent, the debut of services in trade negotiations. Since then, trade in services has become an indispensable element of such endeavors, be they bilateral, regional, or multilateral. Over time, what used to be an arcane issue, whose secrets were to be revealed only to a vew initiates, has been attracting an increasing attention on the part not only of policy-makers and trade negotiators but also of businesspeople, researchers, and civil society. Why this increasing interest? There are several reasons for this. For one, services ply a central role in economic activity in virtually all countries of the world. Their participation in gross domrstic product (GDP) ranges, on average, from 50 percent in low-income countries to 54 percent in middle-income economies, and to 72 percent in rich countries. The importance of employment in services activities is no less impressive, averaging 72 percent of total employment in high-income economies. Anothe reson for this increasing interest in services trade is its rising share in investment and trade. In 2006 commercial services export, measured by traditional balance of payments standards, reached almost $2.8 trillion. In spite of this highly significant increase in absolute value, trade in services still accounts for about 20 percent of world trade. These figures highly underestimate the importance of services for world trade, however. Indeed, 'trade in services', as understood nowadays by both reseachers and negotiators, encompasses not just the transactions recorded in the balance of payments but also the sales of services by local companies that establish a presence abroad-the so-called foreign affiliates trade. According to the WTO scretariat, data available for the foreign affiliates of Organisation for economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)countries and services-producing activities suggest that these global sales are approximately one and a half time larger than conventionalcross-border trade flows measured through the balance of payments. The increase in services sales through the presence of companies abroad is driven, not surprisingly, by incresing flows of foreign investment in services activities. In fact, services represented almost two-thirds (61 percent)of the global FDI stock in 2005, compared to 49 percent in 1990. Services also remain the dominant sector in cross-border merger and acquisition (M&A) deals.

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Ketersediaan

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

World Trade Organization

No. Panggil

382.9 Pas o

Penerbit

Washington DC : Cambridge University Press., 2008

Deskripsi Fisik

xxiv, 759 hlm. : 23 cm.

Bahasa

Inggris

ISBN/ISSN

978-0-521-73591-9

Klasifikasi

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Tipe Isi

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Tipe Media

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Tipe Pembawa

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Edisi

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Subjek

Service Industries, 2. International Trade, 3. WTO

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

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Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

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