Services as a New Engine of Growth for ASEAN, the People’s Republic of China, and India

Abstract

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Why Do Economies Enter into Preferential Agreements on Trade in Services? Assessing the Potential for Negotiated Regulatory Convergence in Asian Services Markets

“…Such a trend now extends to services, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region (Chanda 2011, PECC and ADBI 2011, Shepherd and Pasadilla 2012. Of the 81 preferential trade agreements (PTAs) that entered in force prior to January 2000, 73 (90%) featured provisions dealing exclusively with trade in goods.…”

Prospects for Services Trade Negotiations

“…Shepherd and Pasadilla (2012) also find that the minimum foreign ownership requirement for logistics services is not met by most countries. In air transport services, the AEC Blueprint target stipulates that foreign ownership limits to be raised to 70 % by 2010, for domestically established air transport services companies.…”

“…Shepherd and Pasadilla (2012) identify priority sectors and policies that ASEAN countries should focus on to improve services trade and investment flows ( Table 3). The authors emphasize "backbone" services such as telecommunications; transport, distribution, and logistics; finance; health services; education; outsourcing services and business processing; and business and professional services.…”

“…The ASEAN-PRC agreement took almost a decade to negotiate and enter into force ( 6 However, Shepherd and Pasadilla (2012) note that neither the PRC nor ASEAN, with the exception of Singapore and to some extent Malaysia, made commitments in the ASEAN-PRC FTA that go substantially beyond their GATS obligations.…”

The service sector in the free-trade agreement between the EU and Singapore: closing the gap between policy and business realities

“…The awareness of the importance of highly educated human capital for the development of high order services has put Singapore ahead of many other emerging markets (Jensen 2013). The aim has also been to enhance the possibility for value creation and the connection of advanced manufacturing and services, which is an important part of connecting to global and regional production networks (Shepherd and Pasadilla 2012). Industries, such as advanced information technology, telecom, biotech and potential green application of advanced manufacturing and service production, are all important sectors for the future (Masuyama and Vandenbrink 2003;Ström 2006;Aldaba and Pasadilla 2010).…”