Services Trade Reform: Making Sense Of It

With the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations moribund, it is time to reconsider the future of trade negotiations as an impetus for reform. Services trade is a leading-edge behind-the-border issue, so a services perspective offers critical insights into the future of trade negotiations more generally. This book traces the author's thinking on how to make sense of services trade reform, drawing on her analytical, empirical and policy-related work on services issues from both academic and government perspectives. It covers policy reform, policy forums, and what it takes politically to achieve reform, and offers critical new insights into the future of trade negotiations. The book shows policy makers how to approach the economics and politics of services trade reform domestically, consistent with relevant special features of services trade. It shows analysts the full policy implications of those special features, including what they mean and how services reform should be treated in the future in national and international forums. In covering such broad territory, the book draws together published material that previously has been scattered across place and time, including modelling that establishes empirically the special features of services that are relevant.