Trade Agreements and Services Value Chain: The Case of India and Thailand (original) (raw)

Integrating South and Southeast Asia through Services Value Chain: The Cases of India and Thailand

Asia-Pacific Journal of Rural Development

Liberalisation and technological developments have led to the fragmentation of production and the emergence of the concept of global value chains. This has ushered in the role of services for linking the production network, resulting in a greater composition of services in the value of tradable. Consequently, liberalisation of the entire value chain is being addressed through trade agreements for efficient crosscountry delivery of goods and services. This has also been the case with South and Southeast Asian Free Trade Agreements. The objective of this paper is to understand the prospects of enhancing services trade, investment and cooperation between South and Southeast Asia, taking the example of India and Thailand, by focusing on the development of services value chains through services sector liberalisation. Based on a primary survey and an analysis of the trade agreements involving India and Thailand, the paper finds that the present level of physical and people-to-people integration is low. This is due to the presence of certain market access barriers and regulatory bottlenecks in the two markets. The evidence suggests that these barriers can be addressed at the institutional level by means of a comprehensive trade agreement. India and Thailand have singularly liberalised key services sectors in their concluded bilateral and regional trade agreements, thereby fostering greater integration and leveraging the development of a global value chain.

The roles of services in international trade and Global Value Chains: A conceptual framework

2018

The Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) serves as the United Nations' regional hub promoting cooperation among countries to achieve inclusive and sustainable development. The largest regional intergovernmental platform with 53 member States and 9 associate members, ESCAP has emerged as a strong regional think-tank offering countries sound analytical products that shed insight into the evolving economic, social and environmental dynamics of the region. The Commission's strategic focus is to deliver on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which it does by reinforcing and deepening regional cooperation and integration to advance connectivity, financial cooperation and market integration. ESCAP's research and analysis coupled with its policy advisory services, capacity building and technical assistance to governments aims to support countries' sustainable and inclusive development ambitions. The shaded areas of the map indicate ESCAP members and associate members.

A Handbook on Negotiating Preferential Trade Agreements: Services Liberalization

the secretariat of the escAp is the regional development arm of the united nations and serves as the main economic and social development centre of the United Nations in Asia and the Pacific. Its mandate is to foster cooperation between its 53 members and 9 associate members. It provides the strategic link between global and country-level programmes and issues. It supports governments of countries in the region in consolidating regional positions and advocates regional approaches to meeting the region' s unique socio-economic challenges in a globalizing world. The ESCAP secretariat is located in Bangkok, Thailand. Please visit the ESCAP website at www.unescap.org for further information.

Services Trade and Global Value Chains

Policy Research Working Papers, 2017

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

Dynamics of Service Trade in Association of Southeast Asian Nations: Process Towards Integration

International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, 2017

Over the past few decades, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN’s) economic structure has continued to change. Overall, ASEAN’s economic structure has shifted towards the service sector in line with the growing importance of this sector in the economy. This structural shift is very rapid along with the growing importance of the role of the service sector in supporting the agricultural sector and the manufacturing sector. Therefore, it is important to conduct further researches in the dynamics of service trade in ASEAN in achieving integration. This study focuses on the openness of ASEAN countries to trade. Openness as a basic component in the integration process is analyzed through a set of trade policies made as well as the complexity and depth of commitment in service trade agreements. The database used covers all ASEAN countries during the 2005-2014 timeframe. This study employs a descriptive analysis as the main approach, supported by fixed effect model to see the facto...

The Services Trade Dimension of Global Value Chains

Commonwealth trade policy discussion papers, 2014

The authors acknowledge Lisa Barker for background research and editorial assistance. The Commonwealth Trade Policy Discussion Papers series promptly documents and disseminates reviews, analytical work and think-pieces to facilitate the exchange of ideas and to stimulate debates and discussions on issues that are of interest to developing countries in general and Commonwealth members in particular. The issues considered in the papers may be evolving in nature, leading to further work and refinement at a later stage. The views expressed here are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Servicification in Global Value Chains: The Case of Asian Countries

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 2017

The paper studies the degree of servicification (or the role of services as inputs in manufacturing) of selected 61 Asian countries in terms of global value chain (GVC) activities at the sectoral level using domestic and foreign services from 1995 to 2011. We explore empirically the possible sources of servicification of the economies in terms of the factors driving the expansion of servicification. We categorize servicification activities into two types: (a) domestic servicification using domestic services and (b) foreign servicification using foreign value-added content in domestic exports. Servicification is confirmed in selected Asian countries, particularly in 16 East Asian countries associated with the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiation. However, the selected Asian countries tend to have lower domestic servicification levels, but higher foreign servicification levels as compared to the overall sample of countries in the study. Countries with higher participation rates and lower positions in GVCs tend to have higher levels of foreign servicification across the sectors. In contrast, countries with higher participation rates and higher positions in GVCs tend to use more domestic services in manufacturing exports. The effect is larger for Asian countries as compared to the developed countries in the sample. The study also highlights the role of technical improvement and institutional as key factors in the development of services in the global production value chain.

How the Reduction of Regulatory Barriers to Trade in Services may Affect the Architecture of Global value Chains: the Case of TISA

2017

This paper investigates the likely impacts of TISA negotiations on the Architecture of Global Value Chains, using a rather innovative approach on the marriage between General equilibrium models and input-output models. Ad valorem equivalents of regulatory barriers to trade in services will be estimated for all TISA members using state of the art gravity equations and Poisson regressions. General equilibrium effects stemming from a static model will be evaluated according to the trade in value added logic, instead of the traditional gross trade analysis, shedding some light on how services negotiations may impact global/regional value chains for both TISA members and outsiders.