Firm heterogeneity in services trade: Micro-level evidence from eight OECD countries

This paper shows that smaller and less productive firms, as well as first-time exporters, are overproportionally affected by services trade barriers using micro-data from Belgium, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. For these firms, both the propensity to export and export volumes to less restrictive destinations are significantly higher than to more restrictive destinations. In contrast, policy barriers measured by the OECD Services Trade Restrictiveness Index (STRI) do not affect export decisions of the largest, most productive and experience services firms. The pattern holds for two major modes of supply, cross-border services exports and foreign affiliate sales of services firms. The findings are consistent with firm sorting mechanisms in trade models with heterogeneous firms and hysteresis of export participation in the presence of sunk export costs.     

The value of market access and national treatment commitments in services trade agreements

This paper looks at market access and national treatment commitments for services in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and in 95 regional trade agreements (RTAs) involving the countries that are covered in the OECD Services Trade Restrictiveness Index (STRI). The objective is to quantify the impact of legal bindings on trade in services that result from a reduction in the uncertainty faced by exporters. Bilateral bindings indices are created for five broad service sectors (professional services, computer services, telecoms, financial services and transport services). They indicate how close the sector is from a fully bound regime with no possibility to introduce any new trade barrier, by comparing commitments with the actual trade regime. These bilateral indices are then tested over the period 2000–2014 in a structural gravity model. Despite differences across sectors, the results confirm that the legal bindings typically found in services trade agreements tend to have a positive impact on exports even if no actual liberalisation takes place.     

Transition,regulation and trade in services

Market-oriented reforms launched at the beginning of the 1990s have had a profound impact on the restructuring of the service sector in transition economies. Reforms have introduced complex regulatory changes that substantially diminished the barriers to competition in services, thereby improving the supply of services. The article explores the patterns and effects of regulatory changes in the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) on services exports in the period 1993–2004. The econometric analysis finds a statistically significant impact of the regulatory reforms on service exports. The effects are more significant for the period 1999–2004 and seem to suggest that efficient implementation of reforms during the accession process had beneficial consequences also for service exports. However, there is enough room for the CEECs to dismantle further the obstacles to services provision and to improve the governance of the service markets within the internal market for services.     

Firm heterogeneity and international trade in services

This study, using panel data on Japanese firms, analyses the relationship between services trade and firm heterogeneity. It finds that the number of firms engaged in services trade is far less than that engaged in goods trade. Further, the productivity of services traders is higher than that of domestic firms and goods trading firms, whereas the productivity of firms that export services beyond the boundary of their firm groups is higher than that of those that export services only to their affiliate firms. These results suggest that only productive firms can engage in services trade by incurring the relatively large fixed costs.     

Internationalization of services: The case of intra‐multinational enterprise trade

Increased tradability of services, made possible by the information and communications technology (ICT) revolution, has been at the heart of the internationalization of services. Although rapid growth of the services trade between parents of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and their overseas subsidiaries has contributed to the internationalization of services, empirical studies examining the determinants of intra‐MNE trade in services are few. This article, using the ownership, location, and internalization (OLI) framework, attempts to explain intra‐MNE trade in services. The results provide strong support for the OLI perspective, and posit a complementary relationship between manufacturing foreign direct investment and intra‐MNE services trade. The results also suggest the importance of subsidiaries' absorptive capacity and breadth of global connectedness for intra‐MNE trade.     

服务贸易促进外贸增长方式转变:机理及其实现

我国数量型、粗放型的外贸增长方式难以为继,必须实现根本性转变,发展服务贸易是促进其转变的重要途径和举措.文章分析了服务贸易能够促进外贸增长方式转变的作用机理,并提出了保持货物贸易与服务贸易的互动、服务贸易进出口平衡、比较优势与创造优势相结合以及在WTO中争取自己的贸易利益等发展服务贸易的对策.     

Regulatory barriers to trade in services: A new database and composite indices

This paper presents new data on services trade regulation for 46 countries in 22 services sectors over 6 years (2014–2019). The data consist of qualitative information which is scored and weighted to produce composite indices. They cover market access and national treatment restrictions with respect to all GATS modes of supply, but also behind the border domestic regulation such as licensing, non-transparent regulatory procedures and competition policy. The database is updated annually. The trade restrictiveness indices (STRIs) are significantly correlated with services trade flows, but also with the performance of the sectors subject to the restrictions including logistics performance indicators, interest spreads, density of ATMs and secure servers, broadband penetration and outcomes such as legal rights and the time to resolve insolvency.     

The effect of border barriers to services trade on goods trade

This paper has two objectives (a) to introduce border policy-induced barriers (PIBs) to services trade and (b) analyse the impact of border PIBs in services sectors on goods trade. The World Input-Output Database covering 43 countries is used over the period 2000–14. A three-stage analysis is employed. The measures of bilateral services trade barriers calculated in each services sector in the first stage are decomposed into its cultural/geographic and policy-induced parts in the second stage. Border PIBs to services trade are used in the structural gravity estimations of bilateral goods trade in the final stage. The results demonstrate significant and robust adverse effects of barriers to services trade on goods trade. When the level of development is taken into consideration, there are marked differences in the impact of these barriers on goods trade.     

On the gains from an expansion in factor mobility in bilateral trade

A single composite-good two-factor input production model is employed to investigate the gains from an expansion in factor mobility between two countries with different neoclassical technologies. Necessary and sufficient conditions for both countries to gain from an expansion in factor mobility are established. The analysis then develops a criterion based on market information for predicting whether a country would gain from an expansion in factor mobility. Finally, the income distributional effects within and between countries of an expansion in factor mobility are discussed.     

GATS与国际健康服务贸易综述

国际健康服务贸易的兴起给发展中国家带来了贸易获利的机会,但也会对其国民健康体系造成冲击并加剧本已存在的健康服务不平等问题。按照GATS对国际服务贸易的定义,国际健康服务贸易相应也有四种模式,不同的模式发生的动因有所不同,其对发展中国家带来的经济影响也有差异。发展中国家如何促进其健康服务贸易发展并缓解健康服务不平等问题,要考虑健康服务贸易的政策壁垒,从公共政策和贸易政策方面进行调整。     

Rue the ROOs: Rules of origin and the gains (or losses) from trade agreements

ABSTRACT

This article provides three-good, three-country examples of trade in both intermediate inputs and final goods. These show the adverse effects that rules of origin (ROOs) can have, even in a world where every country has a free trade agreement (FTA) with every other country. ROOs may cause ubiquitous FTAs to yield a level of welfare, for everyone, that is worse than if there were no FTAs at all, and all trade were subject to common nondiscriminatory tariffs. Thus, the move to an ever increasing number of FTAs may be reducing world welfare.     

The environmental effect of trade liberalization: Evidence from China's manufacturing firms

While prior literature on trade liberalisation and the environment has mostly focused on the macroeconomic ramifications, this study explores at the firm level whether and how changes of trade barriers brought about by China's accession to the WTO may impact on its manufacturing firms’ environmental performance. Adopting a difference-in-differences (DID) methodology, we document the effects of tariff reductions on improving firm-level SO2 emission intensity, and the key corporate strategic decisions responsible for delivering the observed results, with robustness tests covering other major pollutants. In response to trade liberalisation, firms are found to increase labour resources for environmental protection and to improve their production processes to reduce emission intensity. This study contributes to the literature by investigating at the level of the operating firm how output and input tariff reductions may impact on environmental performance and uncovering for the first time the specific actions responsible for the results.     

文化服务贸易文献综述

近年来,文化服务全球贸易的增长十分迅猛。但是,在世界贸易组织框架下,文化服务贸易却是一块模糊不清的领域,因此有关文化服务贸易自由化的争论也一直存在。尤其是在视听服务开放的问题上,WTO各成员的立场严重对立。当然,就WTO各成员而言,是否推动文化服务贸易自由化,特别是视听服务的自由化,首先取决于各自的利益。     

我国旅游服务贸易的竞争优势分析——基于“钻石模型”

旅游服务贸易是我国服务贸易中总量最大的项目,对增加外汇收入、拉动经济增长有重要作用。我国的旅游服务贸易经过三十多年的发展取得了显著的成就,但与发达国家相比仍存在显著的差距。基于迈克尔.波特的"钻石模型",从生产要素、需求情况、相关和支撑产业,以及企业的战略、结构与竞争四个基本要素和机遇、政府两个辅助要素分析我国旅游服务贸易的竞争优势,提出发展对策:加强政府的主导作用;提升旅游企业的竞争力;发展旅游的相关产业;培养高素质的专业人才。     

国际服务贸易对浙江省经济增长的贡献分析

近年来,国际服务贸易在全球经济结构转化大趋势下得以迅猛发展,相对而言,浙江省国际服务贸易发展相对滞后。采用浙江省1995年～2010年国际服务贸易和GDP的数据建立模型,分析结果发现浙江省国际服务贸易进口和出口与GDP之间存在正向相关性,国际服务贸易进口对国民经济增长的贡献要比出口大,对经济增长的拉动作用更明显。     

中国建立自由贸易港的实践探索

随着对外开放的深入推进,中国正在探索、实施具有中国特色自由贸易港的建设。中共十九大报告提出了“赋予自由贸易试验区更大改革自主权,探索建设自由贸易港”,为各地区建设自由贸易港提供了指引。在阐述自由贸易港范畴与特征及功能类型的基础上,探究了中国建立自由贸易港实践中面临的主要问题,进而提出了完善法律制度,明确自由贸易港法律定位;加大统筹推进,实现各地区互联互动;全方位发展,加强进口、转口贸易制度创新;加强服务贸易、数字贸易制度创新,推动自由贸易港国际化发展;建立公平贸易环境,提升中国在国际经贸领域的话语权等对策建议。     

中国与发达国家生产者服务业产业内贸易比较研究——基于货物贸易、服务贸易的视角分析

随着国际贸易的纵深发展,当今社会贸易种类已由传统的货物贸易向现代服务贸易转变,生产者服务业作为服务贸易中最核心、附加价值最高的组成部分在后工业经济时代发挥着越来越重要的作用。本文采用中国与有代表性的发达国家美、日、德、法、意经济体间生产者服务部门产业内贸易比较测度,揭示出当今中国在急需产业转型、效益提升的关键时期与发达国家间生产者服务业产业内贸易的现状与问题。同时,文中应用我国与发达国家间生产者服务业产业内贸易受约因素的面板数据分析,发现2000-2005年间,中美、中德、中意专利产业内贸易不存在,仅有产业间贸易,说明我国与发达国家间专利技术方面的差距所在。基于文中的研究提出我国要大力提升专利业发展、继续巩固货物贸易比较优势,提高科研、提升人力资本和加强环保,这将对我国与发达国家间生产者服务业产业内贸易增长发挥促进作用。     

Academic freedom for all in higher education: The role of the general agreement on trade in services

In an era of the knowledge society, one would expect to encounter a sense of urgency in assuring the free flow of higher education across national borders. Yet, to the contrary, there is a substantial reluctance to the integration of this sector into the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).This contribution postulates that academia is missing out on a major opportunity by setting itself apart in trade negotiations. Though higher education has a higher calling, it will not be able to compete successfully for necessary resources unless it adapts to the rules of the World Trade Organization.     

中国产品内贸易发展的国际地位与地理方向特征——基于电子机械类产品的经验研究

对中国电子机械类产品内贸易的实证研究表明,中国仍然处于产品生产的低端环节或价值链的低附加值部分,但已经出现产品生产环节或价值链环节的攀升现象。从贸易地理方向上看,中国电子机械类产品内贸易已经从明显的三角贸易模式逐步转为融入到全球生产网络体系中去,具有明显的全球价值分割的特征。鉴于全球产品内贸易的深入发展,欧美不断引发针对中国的贸易争端是不公正的。     

International Trade and Health Policy: Implications of the GATS for US Healthcare Reform

This paper examines the implications of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), the World Trade Organization’s agreement governing trade in health-related services, for health policy and healthcare reform in the United States. The paper describes the nature and scope of US obligations under the GATS, the ways in which the trade agreement intersects with domestic health policy, and the institutional factors that mediate trade-offs between health and trade policy. The analysis suggests that the GATS provisions on market access, national treatment and domestic regulation, which are designed to eliminate ‘regulatory barriers’ to global trade in health services, limit the range of options that state and federal regulators and legislative bodies can employ to regulate the health sector and implement healthcare reforms. As such, the paper identifies the broader social and ethical implications of free trade policy.