The entry into force of new World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules will facilitate and simplify trade in services. The new rules apply to a large and diverse group of WTO Members, including developed, developing and least-developed countries — representing 92% of world trade in services.
The set of rules agreed in the Joint Initiative on Services Domestic Regulation will streamline authorisation requirements and ease procedural hurdles faced by businesses around the globe, in particular micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.
This agreement will help reduce the costs of global services trade by more than €110 billion every year, the WTO has highlighted, by ensuring transparency, efficiency and predictability of authorisation and qualification requirements and procedures.
In recent years, services export growth has outpaced sluggish growth in merchandise trade, and now accounts for almost half of overall trade measured in value-added terms, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF).
At the same time, services trade costs are twice as high as those for goods, and 40% of these costs are linked to opaque regulations and cumbersome procedures, the WEF continued as it welcomed the new initiative.
This will help the digital agenda, since sectors such as telecommunications, computer services, engineering, and banking stand to benefit. The agreement also marks the first occasion on which a WTO text includes a binding provision on non-discrimination between men and women.
At the same time, the WTO and the International Trade Centre (ITC) have launched a US$ 50 million global fund to help women tap into opportunities in international trade and the digital economy.
The Women Exporters in the Digital Economy (WEIDE) Fund will help women-led businesses and women entrepreneurs in developing economies and least-developed countries adopt digital technologies and expand the online presence of their enterprises.
