Services in Doha : what ' s on the table ?, Vol. 1 of 1

About

Countries

Data & Research

Learning

News

Projects & Operations

Publications

Topics

Home > Data & Research > Document Search > Report Details

Services in Doha : what's on the table ?

Author:	Gootiiz, Batshur; Mattoo, Aaditya;	Collection Title:	Policy Research working paper ; no. WPS 4903
Country:	World;	Date Stored:	2009/04/16
Document Date:	2009/04/01	Document Type:	Policy Research Working Paper
Language:	English	Major Sector:	Industry and trade
Rel. Proj ID:	1W-Services Trade Research -- -- P110919;	Region:	The World Region
Report Number:	WPS4903	Sub Sectors:	Other domestic and international trade
SubTopics:	Public Sector Corruption & Anticorruption Measures; Transport Economics Policy & Planning; Trade and Services; Emerging Markets; Corruption & Anticorruption Law	TF No/Name:	TF091542-SERVICES TRADE RESEARCH
Volume No:	1 of 1

Summary: Services trade reform matters, but what is Doha doing about it? It has been hard to judge, because of the opaqueness of services policies and the opaqueness of the request-offer negotiating process. This paper attempts to assess what is on the table. It presents the results of the first survey of applied trade policies in the major services sectors of 56 industrial and developing countries. These policies are then compared with these countries' Uruguay Round commitments in services and the best offers that they have made in the current Doha negotiations. The paper finds that at this stage, Doha promises greater security of access to markets but not any additional liberalization. Uruguay Round commitments are on average 2.3 times more restrictive than current policies. The best offers submitted so far as part of the Doha negotiations improve on Uruguay Round commitments by about 13 percent but remain on average 1.9 times more restrictive than actual policies. The World Trade Organization's Hong Kong Ministerial had set out ambitious goals for services but the analysis here shows that much remains to be done to achieve them.


Official Documents Official, scanned versions of documents (may include signatures, etc.)
File Type		Description	File Size (mb)

	PDF 20 pages	Official version*	1.4 (approx.)
	Text	Text version**

	See documents related to this project

* The official version is derived from scanning the final, paper copy of the document and is the official,
archived version including all signatures, charts, etc.

** The text version is the OCR text of the final scanned version and is not an accurate representation of the final text.
It is provided solely to benefit users with slow connectivity.

Permanent URL for this page: http://go.worldbank.org/J3PPR5VNE0