Services
Why isn’t South Africa more proactive in international services negotiations?
Services are increasingly central to economic activity across the developing world and South Africa is no exception. By African standards the South African economy is quite diversified and has a robust services sector that in some areas exports competitively to developing countries and to developed markets. One would therefore expect to find the South African government assertively advancing these export interests through international trade negotiations while selectively liberalizing access to its domestic services markets in order to ensure their long-term competitiveness and to promote economywide benefits. While there has been some movement in the latter direction largely through unilateral reforms in recent years this has not translated into a proactive services trade negotiating strategy.
Prólogo del Director General de la OMC
El comercio se percibe a veces como una actividad económica que solo favorece a las empresas de gran tamaño. Ciertamente no se puede negar que el comercio internacional es en general mucho más costoso y difícil para las microempresas y las pequeñas y medianas empresas. Cuanto más pequeña es una empresa mayores pueden parecer los obstáculos a los que se enfrenta.
Services trade in numbers
This section presents the importance of trade in services in the global economy by using an experimental dataset developed by the WTO called Trade in Services by Modes of Supply (TISMOS). This dataset captures services supplied through the four modes of supply categorized in the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS); traditional services trade statistics cover only three of the GATS modes of supply. This section also discusses the participation of developing economies including least-developed countries (LDCs) the importance of micro small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and the role of women in services trade. Finally the section explores the content of services value-added in international global value chains.
¿Qué papel desempeña la cooperación internacional en las políticas relativas al comercio de servicios?
El comercio de servicios sigue evolucionando. Las reformas tecnológica y reglamentaria están impulsando una transformación fundamental que crea una nueva demanda y ayuda simultáneamente a reducir los costos del comercio y abrir las puertas a nuevas oportunidades para el comercio de servicios. Gracias al impulso de las cadenas de valor mundiales las tendencias demográficas el incremento de los ingresos per cápita en los mercados emergentes y las preocupaciones ambientales la demanda de servicios prestados en el extranjero es cada vez mayor. La evolución de las vías los actores y la composición del comercio de servicios aumenta sus posibilidades de contribuir al crecimiento y el desarrollo económicos inclusivos pero también plantean una serie de desafíos que es preciso abordar para poder explotar ese potencial.
The liberalization of cross-border trade in services: A developing country perspective
One of the notable trends in recent years has been the increasing importance of the cross-border supply of services. This is occurring in a large number of services sectors both through the partial substitution of services earlier supplied by the commercial presence of foreign companies or by moving natural persons and through trade in newer services such as telemedicine and research and development. The other dynamic trend is the growth in offshoring with developing countries as important participants. These trends provide huge scope for developing countries to exploit their comparative advantages in labor-intensive services without displacing substantial labor in developed economies at the same time adding to efficiency gains and cost reductions in the latter. The further opening of markets for cross-border services by providing the necessary boost to the global growth engine could become a win-win situation for all.
Resumen
En la mayoría de los países se consideran pequeñas y medianas empresas (pymes) las que emplean entre 10 y 250 personas. Se suele llamar microempresas a las empresas con no más de 10 empleados. Sin embargo no hay una definición comúnmente aceptada de lo que es una microempresa o una pyme. Estas empresas por naturaleza heterogéneas pueden ser desde pequeños proveedores de servicios no comerciables hasta proveedores de productos digitales artesanías de gran calidad o instrumentos sofisticados con perspectiva de negocio mundial desde sus inicios.