The Economic Structure of International Trade-in-Services Agreements

Robert Staiger and Alan O. Sykes

No 22960, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: 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.

JEL-codes: F13 F23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int
Note: ITI
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published as Robert W. Staiger & Alan O. Sykes, 2021. "The Economic Structure of International Trade-in-Services Agreements," Journal of Political Economy, vol 129(4), pages 1287-1317.

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