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Africa’s Trade in Services and Economic Partnership Agreements

Africa’s Trade in Services and Economic Partnership Agreements. Paul Brenton Africa Region, World Bank Brussels, October 7, 2010. Overview. The importance of services Trade in services Trade policy for services matters

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Africa’s Trade in Services and Economic Partnership Agreements

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  1. Africa’s Trade in Services and Economic Partnership Agreements Paul Brenton Africa Region, World Bank Brussels, October 7, 2010

  2. Overview • The importance of services • Trade in services • Trade policy for services matters • The challenge of coordinating regulatory reform and trade liberalisation • The opportunities and risks from an EPA

  3. Context: Services in the modern economy

  4. Context: Services matter • For growth • Productivity growth can be higher than in manufacturing • Technological change important for services • Significant learning and knowledge spillovers through clustering. • For employment • Services largest contributor to job creation • High employment rates for women • For poverty reduction • Poverty reduction more strongly correlated with growth of services than with growth of manufacturing See Ghani, E (ed) The Service Revolution in South Asia, World Bank-OUP, 2010

  5. Trade in services plays key role • Exports of services can drive diversification • Potential 18 million new jobs in developing countries from offshoring of services (each job generates a further 3 jobs) • Imports of services and FDI can lead to greater competition, lower prices, higher quality and more variety

  6. Trade policy for services • Competition is essential to increase efficiency • Competition leads to lower prices+better quality services. • Competition pushes service suppliers to reduce waste, improve management and reduce operating costs • forces suppliers to pass on cost savings to consumers in the form of lower prices. • Competition undermines costly rent-seeking activities • Trade liberalisation can increase competition + attract FDI • Small national markets in Africa cannot generate level of competition needed to drive efficiency and adoption of new technologies. • Small size means attracting investment from overseas is important for key infrastructure services.

  7. Many services require regulation • Market failures in many services sectors can impact on both efficiency and equity. • natural monopoly, systemic risks, asymmetric information, and externalities require regulation. • Effective regulation and capacity • Regulation can be complex • Weak regulation leads to less competition and higher costs • Must avoid regulatory capture

  8. Effective regulation and capacity • In electricity need to monitor and consider: • Output and consumption (access levels, Consumption levels and growth, unsatisfied demand); • Efficiency (Productivity levels and growth, Cost levels and changes, Capacity and utilization, losses); • Quality of supply(Continuity, Quality, customer service) • Financial performance(Financial surpluses and losses, rates of return, indebtedness and interest burden); • Capacity, investment, and maintenance(Capacity levels and margins , investment , maintenance expenditure); • Prices(prices and full economic costs, efficiency of subsidies Tariff design and technical and economic efficiency); • Competition (Well-functioning bid auction markets , Well-functioning and competitive generation and supply markets) • Social indicators (Affordability especially for low-income consumers, Impacts on development)

  9. Coordination of trade and regulatory reform • a dynamic process – no strict sequencing • Appropriate regulations may be necessary to realize benefits of trade liberalization • emphasis on competition, sound regulation and wider access • Trade brings new technology which may require change to regulatory approach • Trade opening with inappropriate regulations can result in adverse outcomes • Need for capacity to design and implement appropriate regulations and monitor impact

  10. Strategy for trade in services • Improve data and initiate dialogue with stakeholders • Focus on priority services sectors • Offensive export interests • Domestic sectors where increase in FDI/competition essential for competitiveness • Assess current regulatory policies and openness to trade and FDI • Discuss appropriate forum for trade liberalisation of services • Unilateral, Regional, EPA or multilateral • Obtain technical assistance to increase capacity of regulator and improve regulations

  11. Services trade policies appear less restrictive in Africa Source: Gootiz and Mattoo (2009)

  12. But Africa has not bound openness at WTO Source: Gootiz and Mattoo (2009)

  13. Reticence to make commitments on services at WTO • Mercantilist bargaining approach not effective for services • GATS/WTO not adequately addressed the issue of regulatory reform and capacity building • Lack of clarity over technical assistance • Need forums/platforms of best practices and lessons for successful trade and regulatory reform

  14. Regional integration and services • Risks from preferential liberalisation – MFN dominates – especially in network industries • Regional integration can allow for learning effects • But can give first-mover advantage to less efficient firm • But potential gains from mutual recognition • Move faster at the regional level than in EPA or multilateral in sectors with similar standards and regulatory approaches • Opportunities from regional regulatory cooperation • Avoid regulatory capture • Can allow for faster reform • Pooling of technical capacities for regulation

  15. Thick borders in Africa limit integration • High trade costs create “thick” borders. • These are a key barrier to regional and global integration.

  16. Opportunities from a services EPA • Provide credibility to reform process • Improvement in access to EU????? • Especially mode 4 beyond skilled workers • Provisions on regulatory issues of particular importance to Africa • Tourism - Shipping? • Financial and technical assistance • Enhance regional integration

  17. Risks of a services EPA? • Broad but shallow GATS type agreement • Too much focus on market access • without coordinated regulatory reform and capacity building • Preferential liberalisation

  18. A development-oriented services EPA for Africa • A coordinated sector-by-sector regulatory-reform/trade-opening process • Flexible approach to timing of reforms and a phased strategy towards implementation. • An emphasis on locking in non-discriminatory liberalization of services imports • EPA can be a part of processnot an end-point!

  19. Thank you for participating Africa Trade Policy Notes http://go.worldbank.org/M8SXRN80G0

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