1st Edition

Impediments to Trade in Services Measurements and Policy Implications

Edited By Christopher Findlay, Tony Warren Copyright 2000

    First Published in 2004. The economic impact of barriers to world trade and investment in services has been thought impossible to measure. As a consequence, significant global policy initiatives such as the General Agreement on Trade in Services have been concluded in an information void. This book challenges the view that impediments to services trade cannot be quantified, detailing how these barriers can be measured and their significance estimated. The book contains studies measuring impediments to trade and investment in a variety of sectors, including telecommunications, finance, shipping, education and air transport. The authors explain how the measures were calculated and show how the results could be used in sophisticated economic models. The final part of the book looks at current issues in services negotiations in the World Trade Organisation and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. The measurements and methods detailed in this work have clear relevance to policymaking on services liberalisation and could be used by both international and regional organisations in services negotiations. This work will consequently prove to be an extremely valuable addition to the literature of the field.

    1. Introduction Christopher Findlay and Tony Warren 2. The services sector in output and in international trade Jong-Soon Kang 3. Price impact measures of impediments to services trade Malcolm Bosworth, Christopher Findlay, Ray Trewin and Tony Warren 4. Assessing barriers to services sector investment Leanne Holmes and Alexis Hardin 5. The identification of impediments to trade and investment in telecommunications services Tony Warren 6. The impact on output of impediments to trade and investment in telecommunications services Tony Warren 7. A price-impact measure of impediments to trade in telecommunications services Ray Trewin 8. Modelling the benefits of increasing competition in international air services Martin Johnson, Tendai Gregan, Geraldine Gentle and Paul Belin 9. Regulatory reform in the maritime industry Jong-Soon Kang and Christopher Findlay 10. Restrictiveness of international trade in the maritime industry Greg McGuire, Michael Schuele and Tina Smith 11. Price impact of restrictions on maritime transport services Jong-Soon Kang 12. Restrictiveness of international trade in banking services Greg McGuire and Michael Schuele 13. The price impact of restrictions on banking services Kaleeswaran Kalirajan, Greg McGuire, Duc Nguyen-Hong and Michael Schuele 14. Trade in education services and the impacts of barriers to trade Steven Kemp 15. Measuring barriers to market access for services: a pilot study on accountancy services Allesandra Colecchia 16. Issues in the application of GCE models to services trade liberalisation Philippa Dee, Alexis Hardin and Leanne Holmes 17. A comparison of existing services trade arrangements within APEC Sherry Stephenson 18. Services issues in APEC Christopher Findlay and Tony Warren 19. The WTO agenda: next steps Richard Snape

    Biography

    Christopher Findlay took up the position of Professor of Economics in the Asia Pacific School of Economics and Management at The Australian National University in October 1999. Prior to that he was Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Adelaide. His research is mainly on Australia's trade with Asia, particularly in the services sector. Tony Warren is a principal consultant with the Network Economics Consulting Group in Canberra, where he provides economic and regulatory advice on trade practices issues to a range of transport and telecommunications companies in Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia. Dr Warren is also Visiting Fellow in the Asia Pacific School of Economics and Management at The Australian National University. His current research includes an international comparison of the impact of regulation on telecommunications pricing; and an analysis of the interaction of trade and competition policies in relation to service industries.

    '...this book sheds fresh light on the costs imposed by barriers to trade in a range of service sectors...provides a useful platform on which other research can build.' Duncan McKenzie, International Financial Services, London (IFSL) in The Business Economist [Volume 33 No 1 2002]