The Economic Structure of International Trade-in-Services Agreements / Robert W. Staiger, Alan O. Sykes.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Staiger, Robert W.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Sykes, Alan O.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w22960.

NBER working paper series no. w22960

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2016.

Summary:

The existing economics literature on international trade agreements focuses on tariff agreements covering trade in goods, and offers an explanation for core features of the GATT. Tariffs play almost no role in services markets, however, and the existing models cannot account for the dramatically different approach to trade liberalization in agreements such as the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). We develop a model through which key features of GATS, including its emphasis on "deep integration" - sector-by-sector negotiations on behind the border policy instruments - can be understood. And we use this model to suggest that there may also be a middle ground for services trade liberalization between the GATS deep-integration approach and the traditional border-policy focused "shallow integration" approach of GATT.

Notes:

Print version record

December 2016.