Trade in Services and International Agreements

International trade and investment in services are an increasingly important part of global commerce.  Technological developments in the area of information and telecommunication technologies have expanded the scope of services that can be traded cross-border.  Many countries have introduced private sector-led and competitive market structures in key infrastructure services, such as energy, telecommunications and transport.  These trends have opened new opportunities for cross-border trade and investment in services, in which developing and transition economies are increasingly taking part.  Services provided internationally through the temporary movement of individual service providers offer significant export potential for many developing countries and are already a well-established phenomenon in different regions and sectors.

Reflecting its rising role in international trade, services have become an important component of trade agreements.  In particular, liberalizing services trade is an integral part of the ongoing multilateral negotiating round launched in 2001—the Doha Development Agenda (DDA).  Members of the WTO have exchanged requests for liberalization and a number of Members have submitted first offers.  The liberalization of trade in services is also an important element of bilateral and regional free trade agreements signed—or currently negotiated—in the East Asia region.

The experience with services policy reforms is still young.  Growing foreign participation in the provision of services has posed significant challenges to developing and transition economies.  These challenges take the form of building regulatory institutions needed to remedy market failures, appropriately sequencing reforms, and establishing mechanisms that promote the availability of essential services to poor people.  International trade negotiations in services raise additional challenges.  Barriers to services trade do not take the simple form of tariffs, but consist of a variety of regulatory measures affecting foreign service providers.  This tends to make trading rules complex and international negotiations information and resource-intensive.

Against this background, the World Bank Institute (WBI) has developed a week long course on trade in services that covers the economics of services trade reforms, the rules of international agreements, and the institutional challenges of trade negotiations in services.  This course was launched at the World Bank’s headquarters in Washington, DC in April 2004 and has since been delivered in Latin America and Geneva.  The East Asia course will be the fourth offering and will be organized in cooperation with the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS).

Course Program 
Participants (word - 92k)