Services
Approches coopératives pour promouvoir la participation des PME au commerce
Les précédentes sections du rapport ont identifié les avantages pour les PME de la participation au commerce international (section C) et les obstacles qu’elles rencontrent (section D). La présente section examine les approches coopératives adoptées au niveau international pour faciliter directement ou indirectement la participation des PME au commerce. Il s’agit notamment des initiatives concernant les PME prises dans le cadre des accords commerciaux régionaux (ACR) des institutions régionales (comme la Banque africaine de développement) des institutions multilatérales (comme la Banque mondiale) et de l’OMC.
Acknowledgements and Disclaimer
The World Trade Report 2019 was prepared under the general responsibility of Xiaozhun Yi WTO Deputy Director-General and Robert Koopman Director of the WTO Economic Research and Statistics Division. The Report was coordinated by Emmanuelle Ganne and Stela Rubínová (Economic Research and Statistics Division) and by Antonia Carzaniga (Trade in Services and Investment Division). The lead authors of the Report are Barbara d’Andrea Andreas Maurer Roberta Piermartini and Robert Teh (Economic Research and Statistics Division) and Antonia Carzaniga. Other authors are Marc Auboin Eddy Bekkers John Hancock Kathryn Lundquist José-Antonio Monteiro Coleman Nee Victor Stolzenburg Ankai Xu and Qing Ye (Economic Research and Statistics Division); Pamela Apaza Markus Jelitto Joscelyn Magdeleine Juan Marchetti Martin Roy and Lee Tuthill (Trade in Services and Investment Division); and Rainer Lanz (Development Division).
Market access for the government procurement of services: Comparing recent PTAs with WTO achievements
The treatment of services in preferential trade agreements provides an important point of comparison with their treatment in the multilateral trading system. Recently several studies have examined aspects of the treatment of services in PTAs. These analyses have provided insights into a number of important questions: (a) To what extent are countries willing to make broader and deeper commitments regarding services liberalization in PTAs as compared to the GATS? (b) Why is this so? (c) What costs does the proliferation of such commitments entail? (d) Can such commitments serve as building blocks for multilateral liberalization or are they more likely to undermine it? An important related question concerns possibilities for the eventual multilateralization of commitments on services liberalization in PTAs (Baldwin Evenett and Low 2007).
Beyond the main screen: Audiovisual services in PTAs
Audiovisual services have long been a sensitive issue in the WTO where key members have traditionally held very divergent views. It is not surprising therefore that this sector has failed to attract either a significant number of commitments under the GATS or offers in the Doha Round. Indeed only twenty-nine members have commitments while only eight had made offers by the end of 2007. In comparison preferential trade agreements have provided for significant advances: audiovisual is one of the sectors in which the contrast between multilateral and preferential commitments is the greatest especially in bilateral agreements where the United States is involved.
The Chilean experience in services negotiations
Trade in services was brought into the world negotiating agenda in the early 1990s. Since the entry into force of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994 and the World Trade Organization in 1995 countries have engaged in active negotiations in this area both regionally and bilaterally. Latin American countries have been particularly active in this process having negotiated 20 percent of PTAs covering trade in goods and 47 percent of those dealing with trade in services that have been notified to the WTO. Chile and Mexico stand out having notified to the WTO ten and nine agreements covering trade in services respectively.
Out of stock or just in time? Doha and the liberalization of distribution services
Distribution companies provide the necessary link between producers and consumers within and across borders. The efficiency of the sector helps ensure that consumer welfare is maximized and also that the benefits of freer trade in goods actually make their way to final consumers. Failure of the distribution sector to perform its role well – which can be induced by government policies restricting competition – can lead to a significant misallocation of resources and economic costs.
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements are due to the International Civil Aviation Organization the International Labour Organization the International Monetary Fund the International Road Federation the International Telecommunication Union the International Trade Centre the International Union of Railways the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development the Statistical Office of the European Communities Swiss Re the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development the United Nations Statistics Division the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe the World Bank Containerisation International (through the World Bank) Netcraft (through the World Bank) and Standard and Poor’s (through the World Bank). The assistance of all these organizations in supplying statistics as well as other information has greatly facilitated the work of the WTO Secretariat.
The domestic dynamics of preferential services liberalization: The experience of Australia and Thailand
Both Australia and Thailand have keenly pursued bilateral preferential trading agreements in recent years. These have covered services though to varying degrees. Services domestically important and in some areas sensitive to both economies need to be liberalized as an important means of improving overall productivity and economic performance.
Telecommunications: Can trade agreements keep up with technology?
Since 1997 when the WTO negotiations on basic telecommunications concluded the market for telecommunications has witnessed an enormous transformation. The sector has evolved from one in which government monopolies supplied the services usually over landlines to one in which the vast majority of governments have sold some or all of their ownership interests and introduced competition. During this same period mobile phones which now comprise close to 70 percent of all telephones in use globally have overtaken fixed-line services in nearly all countries. Over the past decade the internet has evolved from a largely experimental technology to a full-fledged commercial service that is an integral part of the business world of consumers’ lives and of the global economy. Internet technology might well form the backbone for the communications industry in the near future – the so-called next-generation networks (NGNs).