29 Apr 2014
Liberalising Trade in Services Through Preferential Trade Agreements
Services account for three quarters of GDP in many countries but less than a quarter of global trade owing to trade barriers. A new book co-edited by Pierre Sauvé and Anirudh Shingal of the WTI assesses recent evidence on services trade barriers, the extent to which preferential trade agreements liberalise trade in services, and whether such liberalisation benefits only participants or extends to non-member countries.
The volume contains sections on overall trends and comparative regionalism and presents a number of detailed case studies of recent trade agreements that include services.
The Preferential Liberalization of Trade in Services fills an important gap in the trade literature by offering a comprehensive cross-regional comparison of approaches to preferential market opening and rule-making in the area of trade in services.
Chronicling the spectacular recent rise of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) in services and with contributions from leading experts, the book examines the forces shaping the demand for preferences in services trade. It asks whether and how preferential advances differ from, go further than, and might ultimately inform the development of multilateral disciplines on services under the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).
The book’s core focus is on comparative scholarship, directing attention to the substantive features of services PTAs around the globe and exploring the iterative nature of rule-making and market opening in a still nascent field of trade diplomacy.
Published by Edward Elgar Publishing, the volume is aimed at trade negotiators and policy officials working in the field of trade and investment in services as well as academics in the fields of law, economics and international political economy.
Details of the publication can be found