Publication: Policy Barriers to International Trade in Services : Evidence from a New Database
Date
2012-06
ISSN
Published
2012-06
Author(s)
Borchert, Ingo
Gootiiz, Batshur
Mattoo, Aaditya
Abstract
Surprisingly little is known about
policies that affect international trade in services.
Previous analyses have focused on policy commitments made by
countries in international agreements but these commitments
do not in many cases reflect actual policy. This paper
describes a new initiative to collect comparable information
on services trade policies for 103 countries, across a range
of service sectors and the relevant modes of service
delivery. The resultant database reveals interesting
patterns in policy. Across regions, some of the fastest
growing countries in Asia and the oil-rich Gulf states have
the most restrictive policies in services, whereas some of
the poorest countries are remarkably open. Across sectors,
professional and transportation services are among the most
protected in both industrial and developing countries, while
retail, telecommunications and even finance tend to be more
open. An illustrative set of results suggests that trade
policies matter for investment flows and access to services.
In particular, restrictions on foreign acquisitions,
discrimination in licensing, restrictions on the
repatriation of earnings and lack of legal recourse all have
a significant and sizable negative effect, reducing the
expected value of sectoral foreign investment by $2.2
billion over a 7-year period, compared with "open"
policy regimes. In terms of access to services, credit as a
share of gross domestic product is on average 3.3 percentage
points lower in countries with major restrictions on the
establishment of foreign banks as compared with those that
only impose operational restrictions.
Citation
“Borchert, Ingo; Gootiiz, Batshur; Mattoo, Aaditya. 2012. Policy Barriers to International Trade in Services : Evidence from a New Database. Policy Research Working Paper; No. 6109. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/4de8fcf7-a562-5c94-8633-ba4206628694 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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