"Liberalizing Global Trade in Energy Services is one in a series of new AEI studies on negotiations to liberalize trade in services. Each study focuses on a particular service sector, identifies the major obstacles to liberalization in that area, and presents policy options for trade negotiators and interested private-sector participants."--Jacket.
In A Multifaceted Approach to Trade Liberalisation and Investment Protection in the Energy Sector, Elena Cima and Makane Moïse Mbengue assess different approaches to bridge the gap between economic and non-economic considerations in the regulation of international energy trade and investment.
This volume explores whether and how trade liberalisation can contribute to achieving universal service goals in telecommunications, water and sanitation, financial services, and electricity, and the types of complementary policies that may be required.
International trade and investment in services are an increasingly important part of global commerce. Advances in information and telecommunication technologies have expanded the scope of services that can be traded cross-border. Many countries now allow foreign investment in newly privatized and competitive markets for key infrastructure services, such as energy, telecommunications, and transport. More and more people are travelling abroad to consume tourism, education, and medical services, and to supply services ranging from construction to software development. In fact, services are the fastest growing components of the global economy, and trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) in services have grown faster than in goods over the past decade and a half. International transactions, however, continue to be impeded by policy barriers, especially to foreign investment and the movement of service-providing individuals. Developing countries in particular are likely to benefit significantly from further domestic liberalization and the elimination of barriers to their exports. In many instances, income gains from a reduction in protection to services may be far greater than from trade liberalization in goods. In light of the increasing importance of international trade in services and the inclusion of services issues on the agendas of the multilateral, regional and bilateral trade negotiations, there is an obvious need to understand the economic implications of services trade and liberalization. A Handbook of International Trade in Services provides a comprehensive introduction to the subject, making it an essential reference for trade officials, policy advisors, analysts, academics, and students. Beginning with an overview on the key issues in trade in services and discussion of the GATS, the book then looks at trade negotiations in the service sector, the barriers to trade in services, and concludes by looking at a number of specific service sectors, such as financial services, e-commerce, health services, and the temporary movement of workers.
Contribution of service sector among world is increasing over the years and playing a major role in world trade system. Service sectors in WTO are generally governed by General Agreement on trade in service (GATS) which formed in 1995. As trade facilitation agreement (TFA) in goods under WTO come into force, India also submitted legal draft document to multilateral body for creating multilateral agreement for services (WTO ministerial meeting in Argentina, Jan 2017). But in WTO, still GATS are ongoing issue under current Doha agenda for more liberalization in different service sectors specific issue through successive round of negotiation. In this paper authors try to depict definition of energy services based on related services associated with energy through different service trade database namely EBOPS, WTO service list and different CPC version. Authors try to project growth in total trade of energy services and evaluate competitive advantages in energy services among major economics like China, India, Japan and Korea. Authors try to map degree of energy service trade liberalization under three regional agreements (BCIM, BIMSTEC 1, ASEAN 4) through constructing a Hoekman (1995) index chart that showing existence of limitation on Market access and national treatment within this sector. So Primary objective of our study is to identify different commitments level for liberalization of energy services and evaluate similarities in commitment pattern of energy services by performing cluster analysis. Authors also evaluate potentialities of energy service trade among three regional blocks and to identify various challenges faced in energy service trade.
Trade in services, far more than trade in goods, is affected by a variety of domestic regulations, ranging from qualification and licensing requirements in professional services to pro-competitive regulation in telecommunications services. Experience shows that the quality of regulation strongly influences the consequences of trade liberalization. WTO members have agreed that a central task in the ongoing services negotiations will be to develop a set of rules to ensure that domestic regulations support rather than impede trade liberalization. Since these rules are bound to have a profound impact on the evolution of policy, particularly in developing countries, it is important that they be conducive to economically rational policy-making. This book addresses two central questions: What impact can international trade rules on services have on the exercise of domestic regulatory sovereignty? And how can services negotiations be harnessed to promote and consolidate domestic policy reform across highly diverse sectors? The book, with contributions from several of the world's leading experts in the field, explores a range of rule-making challenges arising at this policy interface, in areas such as transparency, standards and the adoption of a necessity test for services trade. Contributions also provide an in-depth look at these issues in the key areas of accountancy, energy, finance, health, telecommunications and transportation services.
