Services
China - Measures Affecting Trading Rights and Distribution Services for Certain Publications and Audiovisual Entertainment Products
On 10 April 2007 the United States requested consultations with China concerning: (1) certain measures that restrict trading rights with respect to imported films for theatrical release audiovisual home entertainment products (e.g. video cassettes and DVDs) sound recordings and publications (e.g. books magazines newspapers and electronic publications); and (2) certain measures that restrict market access for or discriminate against foreign suppliers of distribution services for publications and foreign suppliers of audiovisual services (including distribution services) for audiovisual home entertainment products.
Trade in Healthcare and Health Insurance Services
The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) is broader in policy coverage than conventional trade agreements for goods and at the same time offers governments more flexibility in various dimensions to tailor their obligations to sector- or country-specific needs. An overview of existing commitments on healthcare and health insurance services shows that WTO Members have made abundant use of these possibilities. While most participants elected not to undertake bindings on healthcare services at the end of the Uruguay Round nor to make offers in the ongoing negotiations insurance services have been among the most frequently committed sectors. If there is a common denominator regardless of the Members concerned (except for recently acceded countries) it is the existence of a lot of 'water' between existing commitments and more open conditions of actual access in many sectors. This may also explain in part why there have been very few trade disputes under the GATS to date - far fewer than under the GATT in merchandise trade. Also governments appear to be generally hesitant in politically and socially sensitive areas to take action in the WTO. There are indications however that the same 'players' have acted differently in other policy contexts. For example it appears that under recent preferential trade agreements (PTAs) the European Communities has been even more cautious in committing on hospital services and protecting scope for (discriminatory) subsidies than under the GATS. Yet this is not necessarily true for the obligations assumed by many countries including individual EC Member States under bilateral investment treaties (BITs). These treaties overlap with the GATS as far as commercial presence is concerned and may be used by aggrieved investors to challenge policy restrictions in host countries. However though frequently invoked BITs do not meet the same standards in terms of transparency open (consensual) rulemaking and legal certainty as commitments under the GATS.
China - Measures Affecting Trading Rights and Distribution Services for Certain Publications and Audiovisual Entertainment Products
On 10 April 2007 the United States requested consultations with China concerning: (1) certain measures that restrict trading rights with respect to imported films for theatrical release audiovisual home entertainment products (e.g. video cassettes and DVDs) sound recordings and publications (e.g. books magazines newspapers and electronic publications); and (2) certain measures that restrict market access for or discriminate against foreign suppliers of distribution services for publications and foreign suppliers of audiovisual services (including distribution services) for audiovisual home entertainment products.
Services Liberalization from a WTO/GATS Perspective: In Search of Volunteers
There has been virtually no liberalization under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) to date. Most existing commitments are confined to guaranteeing the levels of access that existed in the mid-1990s when the Agreement entered into force in a limited number of sectors. The only significant exceptions are the accession schedules of recent WTO Members and the negotiating results in two sectors (financial services and in particular basic telecommunications) that were achieved after the Uruguay Round. The offers tabled so far in the ongoing Round would not add a lot of substance either. Apparently negotiators are 'caught between a rock and a hard place'. For one thing the traditional mercantilist paradigm relying on reciprocal exchanges of concessions seems to be provide less momentum than in the goods area. For another there are additional - technical economic and political - frictions that tend to render services negotiations more complicated timeconsuming and resource-intensive. The novelty of the Agreement adds an additional element of legal uncertainty from a negotiator's perspective. This paper discusses various options that might help to overcome the ensuing reticence to engage. Few appear within reach at present however. The bare minimum that would need to be achieved is to revive work on scheduling and classification issues with a view to putting both existing commitments and new offers on a safer footing and to improve compliance with long-existing information/notification obligations.
Domestic regulation: What are the costs and benefits for international trade in services?
Services have been considered non-tradable and therefore outside the scope of trade policy-making until quite recently. A logical consequence is that explicit policy barriers to cross-border trade in services are rare. What segments markets for tradable services is therefore largely in the realm of domestic regulation. Both the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and a number of regional trade agreements (RTAs) aim at developing disciplines on domestic regulation. GATS Article VI states that disciplines on qualification requirements and procedures technical standards and licensing requirements shall be established to ensure that regulation is not more burdensome than necessary to ensure the quality of the service. Such disciplines are however yet to be established but a reference paper on pro-competitive domestic regulation in telecommunications has been included in a number of World Trade Organization (WTO) members’ GATS schedules of commitments and some RTAs have quite detailed disciplines on domestic regulation in this sector.
Operating integrated logistics services in a fragmented regulatory environment: What is the cost?
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.
Domestic regulation of retail food distribution services in Israel: The missing link between food prices and social protest
This chapter provides a case study tracing the impact of domestic regulation on market structure in the retail distribution services sector and its ultimate effects on consumer food prices. Taking Israel a small and relatively liberalized Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) economy as an example our research investigates whether market concentration and the absence of international competition can be attributed to domestic regulation. We place this discussion in the context of recent consumer-led social protest against the rising cost of food in Israel.
Telecommunications reform in China: Fostering competition through state intervention
As in many developing countries the telecommunications services sector in China has for a long time been monopolized by the state through the Ministry of Post and Telecommunication (MPT). Established in 1949 the MPT is not only the regulator of telecommunications services but also the sole owner and operator. Not surprisingly such monopoly has resulted in the slow growth of the sector. However such slow growth did not cause major problems in the first thirty years following the founding of the People’s Republic of China because there was little mobility among the population thus little need for long-distance communication. During this period the telephone was an exclusive luxury available mostly to the government and the military.
Regulatory impact analysis: Addressing the trade and regulatory nexus
The potential for productivity growth to generate higher incomes makes it a natural and important consideration for decision-makers. Productivity is the only driver of income growth that is unlimited as opposed to resource exploitation or increases in population and labour force participation each of which faces natural limits. The continuing need to stimulate productivity growth rightly remains at the forefront of government policy and is a key priority of the Australian government.
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.
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.
Regulation of postal services in a changing market environment: Lessons from Australia and elsewhere
The digital revolution and the exponential growth of the Internet have led to radical changes in the ways in which countries conduct their commerce communicate and store information. Coupled with the digital revolution the last several decades have also seen a fundamental rethink of the role of the state in the economy. Broadly the past reliance in many countries on state control and regulation has given way to a greater emphasis on competition trade openness and market forces.
Wto Domestic Regulation and Services Trade
Domestic regulation of services sectors has a significant impact on services trade liberalization which is why General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) disciplines are negotiated in the WTO. With the help of analyses and case studies from academics regulators and trade experts this book explores the scope and limits of WTO legal principles to promote domestic regulatory reform. Case studies discuss country specific challenges and experiences of regulating important service sectors such as finance telecommunications distribution legal education health postal and logistics services as well as the role of regulatory impact assessments. The findings will interest trade officials policy makers regulators think tanks and businesses concerned with the implications of domestic regulation on access to services markets and with the opportunities for formulating trade disciplines in this area. It is also a useful resource for academics and students researching regulatory approaches and practices in services sectors.
Introduction to Part III
In Part III of this book a number of case studies on domestic regulation in services sectors are presented. These case studies concern the following sectors: legal services telecommunications information and communications technology mobile banking financial services higher education logistical services postal services and retail food distribution.
Mutual recognition of services regulation at the WTO
Mutual recognition is a useful tool for international liberalization in particular contexts. However it has two types of limit and to the extent that it may exceed these limits it poses two important types of risk.
Domestic regulations in Malaysia’s higher education sector
The growth of private higher education institutions (PHEIs) in Malaysia is politically and economically motivated. Excess demand and the use of ethnic quotas in a limited number of public universities with the implementation of the New Economic Policy in 1970 had raised the potential for inter-ethnic conflicts in multi-ethnic Malaysia. The government therefore utilized private provision to supplement public supply thereby increasing access and reducing the possibility of inter-ethnic conflicts due to limited access. Over time the perennial deficit in services trade since independence in 1957 contributed to the idea of using private higher education to reduce student outflows and its negative impact on services trade and instead to increase export revenues through inflows of international students. This led to the aspiration to be a regional hub for higher education based on Malaysia’s comparative advantage in terms of costs and language via the use of English in transnational programmes offered in PHEIs with degrees awarded by parent institutions in developed countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom.
Why regulate? An overview of the rationale and purpose behind regulation
The starting point for any economist is the superiority of the market mechanism of free exchange in efficiently allocating resources and thereby maximizing social welfare. However in order for that ‘invisible hand’ to perform its winning act the market needs to display certain characteristics
Mobile money services provision in East Africa: The Ugandan experience
Services constitute a major and growing sector of Uganda’s economy in terms of its contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) exports and employment. Uganda’s Service Sector Export Strategy of 2005 has also identified information and communications technology (ICT) services as a priority. Similar to the situation in many least developed countries (LDCs) Uganda’s services sector is liberal. Specific General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) commitments have been undertaken on both telecommunications and financial services. There is a high degree of foreign ownership in Uganda’s financial and telecommunications sectors. In the financial sector eighteen of the twenty-five commercial banks licensed in 2012 were foreign owned. In the telecommunications subsector six of the seven operational mobile operators are foreign owned. In addition this subsector has expanded rapidly in recent years with respect to domestic and foreign-owned mobile service providers (MSPs) the number of mobile subscriptions and the emergence of non-voice services such as mobile money. Once established in Uganda foreign and local suppliers of financial or telecommunications services are subject to the same regulatory and supervisory procedures.