Services trade liberalization at the regional level: Does Southern and Eastern Africa stand to gain from EPA negotiations?

Marion Jansen

No ERSD-2006-06, WTO Staff Working Papers from World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division

Abstract: This paper discusses the opportunities and challenges for Southern and Eastern African ACP countries of services negotiations in the context of European Partnership Agreements. The paper provides an overview of existing flows in services from and to Southern and Eastern Africa, an overview that suffers from the paucity of relevant data. Given the significant differences among services sectors, the paper provides a separate discussion for several of them, including financial services, tourism and business services. The latest developments in each sector are described and the issues that are at stake in trade negotiations. In this context the competitive position of Southern and Eastern African countries is compared with the position of the European Union and other global players. The paper attempts to identify possible export opportunities for Southern and Eastern African ACP countries and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of giving preferential access to EU suppliers in those services sectors where African countries are likely to import. Particular attention is paid to the role of mode 4 in the discussed services sectors.

Keywords: regional trade agreements; trade in services; GATS; Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F13 F15 O19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/72060/1/512917000.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:wtowps:ersd200606

DOI: 10.30875/ed659a49-en

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in WTO Staff Working Papers from World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().