WASHINGTON– June 24 2024 – The Global Data Alliance applauds the OECD’s landmark June 2024 study entitled, “Revitalising Services Trade for Global Growth – Evidence from Ten Years of Monitoring Services Trade Policies Through the OECD Services Trade Restrictiveness Index (STRI).”
The STRI is a unique econometric tool that seeks to quantify – on a country-by-country basis – barriers to trade in services. The STRI reinforces the conclusions in the GDA’s Cross-Border Policy Index (and other studies cited therein) regarding increasing levels of cross-border restrictiveness in services.
From a US perspective, the STRI also reinforces recommendations by the White House Council of Economic Advisers and the President’s Export Council to increase efforts to liberalize trade in services.
Selected conclusions in today’s OECD Report:
- Services trade barriers are high and asymmetric.
- The share of market access barriers is substantial.
- Discussions on domestic regulations could be broadened.
- Digitally-enabled services face impediments and growing fragmentation.
- Lowering services trade barriers is a gateway to strengthening the resilience of supply chains and fostering environmental sustainability.
- Revitalizing services trade discussions is key to fuel global growth.
The Report also notes that:
- On a global level, barriers to digitally-enabled services rose by 25% between 2014 and 2023, driven by increasing regulatory hurdles that affected communication infrastructures and data connectivity.
- Close to two-thirds of all services trade barriers identified in the STRI affect market access or national treatment of foreign services suppliers, thereby undermining meaningful progress on new market access.
- The implementation of ambitious services trade reforms could bring annual trade cost savings in the range of USD 1 trillion (the equivalent of close to 1% of global GDP or around 13% of the value of global services trade in 2023), with important gains in business sectors, financial services, transport, and communications services. To achieve this, governments must work together to revitalize services trade discussions.