Services
Domestic regulations and India’s trade in health services: A study of hospital and telemedicine services
Estimated at US$36 billion and employing over four million people, the Indian health care sector is one of the largest service sectors in the economy today. With a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15 per cent, the Indian health care sector is expected to reach US$280 billion by 2020. A 2003 report titled India’s New Opportunity: 2020, prepared jointly by the All India Management Association, Boston Consulting Group and the Confederation of Indian Industries, predicts that over 40 million new jobs and US$200 billion increased revenues are expected to be generated by the Indian services sector by 2020, and the health care sector will play an important role in generating these jobs and revenues (AIMA/BCG 2003). Hence, this sector is predicted to grow rapidly and is seen to have considerable potential due to the growing demand for health care services in India. The reasons are many, including rising incomes, a growing propensity to spend on health care, an emergence of lifestyle-related diseases, and demographics.
Technical notes
GDP (Gross domestic product) is the sum of output within the country’s territory minus the sum of intermediate consumption (increased by taxes net of subsidies on products). Sources: World Bank, Eurostat, and national sources.
Reasonableness, impartiality and objectivity
Similar to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) imposes requirements of reasonableness and impartiality on World Trade Organization (WTO) members with respect to their administration of certain measures. This general obligation of procedural fairness offers a potentially powerful mechanism for ensuring equitable treatment for traded services and service suppliers beyond the substantive disciplines of WTO law, such as those related to discrimination. Yet, the provision has been subject to relatively little extended commentary or jurisprudence, perhaps because of an underlying concern about the sovereignty implications of WTO dispute settlement organs assessing the reasonableness of WTO members’ administration.
Introducción
Los Perfiles comerciales contienen información detallada sobre las corrientes del comercio de mercancías, incluidos los principales productos con que comercia cada economía, una sección más amplia sobre el comercio de servicios comerciales y estadísticas sobre propiedad intelectual. Esta información, que está a disposición de los Miembros de la OMC, los observadores ante la Organización y otras economías determinadas, proviene de múltiples fuentes, como las estadísticas aduaneras, las cuentas nacionales, las estadísticas sobre la balanza de pagos, el comercio de servicios de filiales extranjeras y la propiedad industrial. Los datos se han obtenido de la Secretaría de la OMC y de fuentes externas. Se presentan en un formato normalizado y fácil de visualizar, para su rápida consulta.
Introduction
Services have become the most dynamic sector of world trade – but in ways that are not always recognized or understood. Just as services have come to dominate many national economies, they are playing a bigger role in the global economy as well. Many factors are driving this – including consumption, liberalization and investment – but the game-changer is technology. Services that were once difficult to trade, because they could only be delivered in person, are becoming far easier to trade, because they can be delivered digitally. The 2019 World Trade Report explores this globalization of services – why it is happening, how it is impacting economies, and where new policy approaches are needed.
Conclusions
Over the last few decades, services have become the backbone of the global economy and the most dynamic component of international trade. Services are increasingly easier to trade thanks in large part to digitalization. From online education to virtual law firms, technology is penetrating all services sectors, transforming services traditionally delivered face-to-face into remotely tradable services. Trade, long dominated by the exchange of goods, increasingly involves services, transforming the global economy in the process.
El comercio de servicios en el futuro
Esta sección pretende ofrecer algunas orientaciones sobre cómo evolucionará la estructura del comercio. Para comenzar, se presentan mediante un enfoque novedoso las tendencias recientes de los costos del comercio relacionados con los servicios y se señalan los factores que afectan a esos costos. A continuación, se examinan las principales tendencias futuras en cuanto a tecnología, demografía, ingresos y cambio climático para explicar de qué modo pueden influir estas en las decisiones de los países sobre con qué servicios e interlocutores comerciar, así como sobre su forma de comerciar. Por último, se cuantifica la posible repercusión de estas tendencias en el comercio de servicios empleando el Modelo de Comercio Mundial de la OMC.
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements are due to the International Civil Aviation Organization, the International Labour Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the International Road Federation, the International Telecommunications 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, Netcraft (through the World Bank), and Standard’s and Poor (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.
Dynamique du processus d’internationalisation des PME
Cette section examine en détail la dynamique du processus d’internationalisation des PME, en particulier le rôle de la taille des entreprises dans le lancement et la poursuite de ce processus et l’impact de l’internationalisation sur la performance des entreprises. Comme on l’a vu dans la section B, l’internationalisation est souvent définie comme l’extension des activités économiques de l’entreprise à l’étranger par l’exportation indirecte, l’exportation directe, la sous-traitance internationale (octroi de licences, externalisation) ou l’investissement.