This book fills an important gap in the trade literature by offering a comprehensive cross-regional comparison of approaches to preferential market opening and rule-making in the area of trade in services. Chronicling the spectacular recent rise of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) in services and with contributions from some of the world's leading experts, the book examines the forces shaping the demand for preferences in services trade. It asks whether and how preferential advances differ from, go further than, and might ultimately inform the development of multilateral disciplines on services under the World Trade Organization's (WTO) General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). The book's core focus is on comparative scholarship, directing attention to the substantive features of services PTAs around the globe and exploring the iterative nature of rule-making and market opening in a still nascent field of trade diplomacy. It advances a number of ideas on how to multilateralize PTA advances in services and takes stock of the likely impact on the WTO system of ongoing attempts at crafting a plurilateral agreement on trade in services. Trade negotiators and policy officials working in the field of trade and investment in services as well as academics in the fields of law, economics and international political economy will find much of use in this authoritative study.
Contents: Introduction and Overview Pierre Sauve and Anirudh Shingal PART I: OVERALL TRENDS 1. Services Commitments in Preferential Trade Agreements: Surveying the Empirical Landscape Martin Roy 2. The Preferential Liberalization of Trade in Services: Economic Insights Aaditya Mattoo and Pierre Sauve 3. Do Negotiated Agreements Foster Trade in Services? Evidence from PTAs Anirudh Shingal PART II: COMPARATIVE REGIONALISM 4. Innovative Regionalism: The Americas Maryse Robert and Sherry Stephenson 5. Services Trade in the European Union: Internal and External Approaches to Market Opening Imola Streho 6. Services Preferences in Africa: Perspectives and Challenges Pierre Sauve and Natasha Ward 7. Mapping the Universe of Services Disciplines in Asian PTAs Rupa Chanda 8. Services Trade in South Asia: the India - Sri Lanka CEPA A.P.C. Subhashini Abeysinghe 9. Much Ado About Nothing Much? Australian PTAs in Services Malcolm Bosworth and Ray Trewin PART III: FINAL THOUGHTS 10. Reflections on the Nature of Preferences in Services Pierre Sauve and Anirudh Shingal 11. A Plurilateral Agenda for Services? Assessing the Case for a Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) Pierre Sauve
