Cattaneo, Olivier; Engman, Michael; Sáez, Sebastián; Stern, Robert M.
Description:
International trade in services also
provides an assessment of how policy makers can further
bolster their service industries by leveraging the changes
prompted by technological advancements. The book provides
policy recommendations that include the reduction of
barriers to services trade across all sectors and the
promotion of health- and environment-related development
policies that should be promoted in parallel with a
burgeoning services market. The first recommendation is
considered the most important, because it focuses on the
need to ensure trade openness, which helps ensure the access
to services and promotes the quality of services provision
through foreign and domestic competition. Moreover, the
issue of temporary movement of labor is another focus of
this book, given that it is one of the most important means
of service exports for developing countries. This is an
issue that is considered technically complex and politically
sensitive because of its political and security
implications. The book examines mechanisms that have been
used by various countries to liberalize the temporary
movement of persons and concludes that regardless of the
negotiating forum- multilateral, regional, or bilateral-the
policy making results on temporary movement of labor are, so
far, modest and limited to a small range of categories.
However, it proposes alternative ways to move forward that
require further analysis by countries and relevant
international organizations, including the World Bank.