Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Basic purpose and concepts
- 2 Main building blocks: agreement, annexes and schedules
- 3 A closer look at domestic regulation
- 4 How the GATS is administered
- 5 The role and responsibilities of Member governments
- 6 The challenges ahead
- 7 Preparing requests and offers
- 8 Misconceptions about the GATS
- Appendix 1 Understanding your country's services trade
- Appendix 2 Relevant services statistics and classifications
- Annex: General Agreement on Trade in Services
- Index
Appendix 1 - Understanding your country's services trade
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 October 2011
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Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Basic purpose and concepts
- 2 Main building blocks: agreement, annexes and schedules
- 3 A closer look at domestic regulation
- 4 How the GATS is administered
- 5 The role and responsibilities of Member governments
- 6 The challenges ahead
- 7 Preparing requests and offers
- 8 Misconceptions about the GATS
- Appendix 1 Understanding your country's services trade
- Appendix 2 Relevant services statistics and classifications
- Annex: General Agreement on Trade in Services
- Index
Summary
The Importance of Services for Consumers and Producers, Traders and Investors
Services are an important input for virtually all commercial activities, including other services, and a core determinant of the quality of life. No economy or social community could prosper without adequate transportation, communication, education or health services.
Developed and developing economies have built competitive service industries – the most visible in developing countries include tourism, construction and transport – and benefit from the efficiency of a modern service infrastructure. Services exports may constitute an important foreign-currency earner and contribute to overall economic expansion. The attendant employment effects could help to stem migration from less developed regions and provide a nucleus for self-sustained growth.
The quality of available business services may prove crucial to development. Research in Latin America in the 1980s by UNCTAD indicated that one of the primary distinctions between developed and developing economies was the availability of highly specialized business services. More recent research in Asia, Africa and the Middle East has confirmed the importance of business services of international quality that are customized according to local commercial needs.
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- A Handbook on the GATS AgreementA WTO Secretariat Publication, pp. 51 - 55Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005
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