This Research Handbook explores the latest frontiers in services trade by drawing on insights from empirical economics, law and global political economy. The world's foremost experts take stock of the learning done to date in services trade, explore policy questions bedeviling analysts and direct attention to a host of issues, old and new, confronting those interested in the service economy and its rising salience in cross-border exchange. The Research Handbook's 22 chapters shed analytical light on a subject matter whose substantive remit continues to be shaped by rapid evolutions in technology, data gathering, market structures, consumer preferences, approaches to regulation and ongoing shifts in the frontier between the market and the state. Expert contributors explore the subject through a multidisciplinary lens, offering a comprehensive overview of lessons learned over two decades of GATS jurisprudence. The book further chronicles the rising stakes and involvement of developing countries in global services trade, notably their growing insertion in global value chains, as well as the latest advances and remaining challenges in the statistical measurement of trade in services. Academics and experts in the policy research community will find value in this book, as will officials in governmental and international organization circles as well as representatives of service sector industry associations. Contributors include: A. Berry, T. Bohn, T. Broude, M. Burri, R. Chanda, P. Delimatsis, G. Gari, B. Hoekman, G.C. Hufbauer, M. Krajewski, R. Lanz, E. Leroux, J. Magdeleine, A. Maurer, P. Mavroidis, M. Mayakeshi, S. Miroudot, M. Molinuevo, S. Moses, N. Mulder, M. Roy, S. Saez, P. Sauve, B. Shepherd, A. Shingal, S. Stephenson, D. Taglioni, L. Tuthill, E. van de Marel, C. Van Grasstek, N. Ward, J. Wilson

Services account for three quarters of GDP in many countries but less than a quarter of global trade. This insightful volume assesses recent evidence on services trade barriers, the extent to which preferential trade agreements liberalize trade in services and whether such liberalization benefits only participants or extends to non-member countries. It provides an excellent overview of the state of knowledge in this important area, as well as a number of detailed case studies of recent trade agreements that include services.' - Bernard Hoekman, European University Institute, Italy'Sky-high barriers to services trade are the foremost obstacle confronting 21st century trade ministers and create a major impediment to global growth. Ministers have made commendable progress in several regional trade agreements but not much in the World Trade Organization. This volume charts the terrain and provides an essential guide to the achievements and shortcomings of preferential liberalization.' - Gary Clyde Hufbauer, Peterson Institute for International Economics, US This book fills an important gap in the trade literature by offering a comprehensive cross-regional comparison of approaches to preferential market opening and rule-making in the area of trade in services. Chronicling the spectacular recent rise of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) in services and with contributions from some of the world's leading experts, the book examines the forces shaping the demand for preferences in services trade. It asks whether and how preferential advances differ from, go further than, and might ultimately inform the development of multilateral disciplines on services under the World Trade Organization's (WTO) General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). The book's core focus is on comparative scholarship, directing attention to the substantive features of services PTAs around the globe and exploring the iterative nature of rule-making and market opening in a still nascent field of trade diplomacy. It advances a number of ideas on how to multilateralize PTA advances in services and takes stock of the likely impact on the WTO system of ongoing attempts at crafting a plurilateral agreement on trade in services. Trade negotiators and policy officials working in the field of trade and investment in services as well as academics in the fields of law, economics and international political economy will find much of use in this authoritative study. Contributors: S. Abeysinghe, M. Bosworth, R. Chanda, A. Mattoo, M. Robert, M. Roy, P. Sauve, S. Stephenson, I. Streho, R. Trewin, N. Ward

The member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) set themselves the ambitious aim of establishing a region-wide economic community by 2015, and to deepen it in the context of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Blueprint 2025. To achieve these goals, service sector reforms will occupy a central place in ASEAN's policy pantheon. This can be attributed to both ASEAN's integration process and its deepening ties within a dense layer of external economic partners. This book takes stock of the experience of ASEAN member states in pursuing trade and investment liberalization in services. It identifies key challenges that the regional grouping can be expected to encounter in realizing its AEC Blueprint 2025 aims. Using a law and economics lens, the book assesses where ASEAN is and is headed in services trade, situating it alongside efforts at crafting a European single market for services.

This volume focuses on one of the most innovative deep integration constructs, The Pacific Alliance, which aims at expanding the frontiers of trade and investment governance in Latin America. It draws on a conference held at Externado University in Bogota, Colombia, in November 2015, bringing together leading scholars, practitioners and officers of public, regional and international organisations interested in a critical analysis of the Alliance, its distinctiveness and likely future directions. The volume features contributions from the multi-disciplinary lens of law, political science and economics. The Pacific Alliance, comprising Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, aims through a participatory and consensual manner to promote the free circulation of goods, services, capital and persons among its members, and to secure deep economic integration through collaboration across a broader set of policy areas than typically obtains in more traditional preferential trade agreements. This volume is of interest to policy makers and staff of international organizations involved in trade and investment negotiations, international economic governance in general as well as faculty, researchers and graduate students of these topics and of international political economy and comparative regionalism.

The negotiation of a patchy but burgeoning network of international investment agreements and the increasing use to which they are put is generating a growing body of jurisprudence which, while still evolving, requires closer analytical scrutiny. Drawing on many of the most distinguished voices in investment law and policy, and offering novel, multidisciplinary perspectives on the rapidly evolving landscape shaping international investment activity and treaty-making, this book explores the most important economic, legal and policy challenges in contemporary international investment law and policy. It also examines the systemic implications flowing from frenetic recent judicial activism in investment matters and advances several innovative propositions for how best to promote greater overall coherence in rule-design, treaty use and policy making and thus offer a better balance between the rights and obligations of international investors and host states.

This collection of essays takes stock of the key challenges that have arisen since the entry into force of the General Agreement on Trade in Services in the mid-1990s and situates them in the context of the WTO's Doha Development Agenda and the proliferation of preferential agreements addressing services today. The multidisciplinary approach provides an opportunity for many of the world's leading experts and a number of new analytical voices to exchange ideas on the future of services trade and regulation. Cosmopolitan approaches to the treatment of labour mobility, the shape of services trade disciplines in the digital age and pro-competitive regulation in air transport are explored with a view to helping readers gain a better understanding of the forces shaping the changes. An essential read for all those concerned with the evolution of the rules-based trading system and its impact on the service economy.

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.