The Evolution of Services Trade Policy Since the Great Recession
Are changes in services markets provoking reform, restrictions, or inertia? To address this question, this paper draws on a new World Bank-World Trade Organization Services Trade Policy Database. The paper analyzes the services trade policies of 68...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2020
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/182781591023343479/The-Evolution-of-Services-Trade-Policy-Since-the-Great-Recession http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33849 |
| Summary: | Are changes in services markets
provoking reform, restrictions, or inertia? To address this
question, this paper draws on a new World Bank-World Trade
Organization Services Trade Policy Database. The paper
analyzes the services trade policies of 68 economies in 23
subsectors across five broad areas -- financial services,
telecommunications, distribution, transportation, and
professional services. Policy measures are quantified into a
Services Trade Restrictions Index (STRI) following a novel,
consistent and transparent framework. The paper identifies
patterns of services trade policies across sectors and
economies, and secular trends over the past decade. Higher
income economies are still more open on average than
developing economies, but the chronology of reform differs
markedly across sectors. In telecommunications and finance,
there is convergence toward greater openness driven by
liberalization in the previously more restrictive developing
economies. In the hitherto universally protected transport
and professional services, there is policy divergence, as
some higher income economies pioneer reform. But while
explicit restrictions are being lowered in most services
sectors—in contrast to recent developments in goods trade
policy -- there is greater recourse to regulatory scrutiny,
especially in higher income economies. These measures could
reflect legitimate prudential or security concerns, but they
could also reflect recourse to less transparent forms of protection. |
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