Торговля услугами – экономика и законодательство

Services are the fastest growing sector of the global economy, and trade and foreigndirect investment in services have grown faster than in goods over the past decade. Technological progress has greatly enhanced the scope for trade in conventionalservices, such as education and finance, and also created a host of new tradable services,such as software development and internet access. Moreover, liberalization in manycountries is leading for the first time to the private and foreign provision of services suchas telecommunications, transport, and finance. The performance of the services sectors can make the difference between rapid andsluggish growth.But the benefits from liberalization are not automatic. Multilateral engagement can be an important catalyst for liberalization. Even though governments can initiate reforms of services individually, multilateral engagement can help in two ways. First, international negotiations, for example under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), could help accelerate domestic reform andimprove access to foreign markets for developing countries. However, for thesenegotiations to be fruitful, all countries must recognize mutual interests in reciprocal liberalization. Developing countries must see advantagesof multilateral agreement to increase competition, to enhance credibility of potentialdomestic reform and to strengthen domestic regulation.In parallel, global cooperation is needed to provide support for developing countries at four levels: in devising sound policy, strengthening the domestic regulatory environment,enhancing their participation in the development of international standards and inensuring access to essential services in the poorest areas.