International trade in services

Division of Trade Support Services

Trade in services and development

Trends in the services trade balance varied.

Commission on Trade in Goods and Services,

Free trade in consultancy and technology related services

Mr. Julian Arkell, International Trade and Services Policy

Mr. Hamid Mamdouh, Director, Trade in Services, WTO

Item 5 Trade in services and development implications

The situation is similar in trade in services.

Half of world trade in commercial services consists of business services, which includes professional services such as accounting, legal, health and advertising services.

Assessment of trade in services in the GATS negotiations

Subsides and trade in services, S WPGR W 9.

International trade involves goods, services, transport operations, vehicles and infrastructure.

Non agricultural activities include manufacturing, trade, services and transport etc.

Evidence shows that growth in ICT goods and services trade has been higher than growth in total trade.

In 2003, LDCs accounted for 0.4 per cent of world trade in services, mostly transport and travel services.

Nonetheless, figures confirm the increasing significance of South South services trade.

Services infrastructure for development, trade efficiency and human resources development 400,900

Trade in these services could offer important opportunities for developing countries given their comparative advantage in labour intensive services.

Given the role of services in development, technology transfer and trade, a balanced outcome in services negotiations is imperative.

Developing countries generally remained net importers of commercial services in 2003, and their services trade has been below global averages.

Ms. Lourdes M. Perez, National Directorate of Services for External Trade, Panama

The last years have seen a growth of RTAs covering services trade.

Aaditya Mattoo, Economics and Law of Trade in Services, 2004, World Bank.

Those executives have global experience in trade in transnational goods and services.

(ii) Training courses, seminars and workshops three workshops on the implications of trade in services to Arab countries Arab business community and World Trade Organization agreements and tourism services in the Arab countries.

Services trade can create employment opportunities and promote poverty alleviation and human development.

Contrary to previous years, world total services trade increased less rapidly (13 per cent) than merchandise trade (16 per cent) in 2003.

For the period 2000 2003, trade in services represented 16 per cent of the total trade of developing countries, expanding at the same pace as their trade in goods.

The Statistics Division is developing a worldwide database for trade in services in cooperation with OECD to complement the United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database (Comtrade) merchandise trade database.

Transport, logistics and distribution services are crucial for moving goods and services from one country to another, while business, telecommunications and financial services reduce transaction costs and support trade.

The Interagency Task Force on Statistics of International Trade in Services has agreed to update the Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services by 2009 in order to maintain its usefulness and relevance for countries.

(b) Is free trade in consultancy and technology related services among developing countries feasible?

National assessment of experiences with trade and development of distribution services in developing countries

The head of the Department of Trade in Services and Commercial Services also pointed out that the proportion of import of emerging services also gradually increased from January to August.

There is a paucity of disaggregated and internationally comparable statistics on the direction of international services trade and on South South trade in particular.

It will provide a forum for policy discussion and consensus building on core and emerging issues of international trade, commodities, trade in services and new and dynamic sectors of international trade.

As regards trade in services, world exports in commercial services expanded by 16 per cent to reach a total value of 2.1 trillion in 2004.

The existence and quality of infrastructural services are key determinants of trade services such as transport and logistics, but also distribution, telecommunications, financial and business services, are crucial to the competitiveness of economies.

Many options exist to conserve or enhance specific ecosystem services in ways that reduce negative trade offs or that provide positive synergies with other ecosystem services.

Article VI.4 of the General Agreement on Trade in Services mandates the development of disciplines to ensure that measures relating to qualification requirements and procedures, technical standards and licensing requirements and procedures do not constitute unnecessary barriers to trade in services.

Services are a fundamental economic activity, with a key role in infrastructure building, competitiveness and trade facilitation.

A range of financial services is needed to address the issue and to support South South trade.

Trade of products and services derived from biodiversity could be part of the solution to this problem.