New Developments in Services Trade II

Brief description:

This six-hour lecture series delves into the area of trade in services, arguably one of the most complex areas of modern trade and investment governance characterized by considerable learning by doing and policy experimentation more than a quarter century after appearing on the global trade agenda. Any discussion of the latest frontiers in services trade governance needs to rest on a finer understanding of the innate characteristics of services, how they are produced, regulated and traded across borders. Equally important is to gain a better sense of the underlying political economy of services trade. Only then can one appreciate the both the similarities and subtle but significant differences between the law of goods trade and that governing cross-border services transactions. The latter issues will be addressed in the first lecture on March 20th, paving the way for a deeper dive into the evolving frontiers of services trade governance on March 27th in which priority attention will be placed on the study of the WTO+ (i.e. deeper treatment than existing WTO rules or commitments) and WTO-X  (treatment of new issues (sectors or rules) not covered by the GATS) advances, the factors driving normative advances at the periphery of the multilateral trading system and prospects for their subsequent migration at the global level.     

For external participants, registration is not mandatory.