This paper examines the approaches toliberalization of trade in services adopted within existing PTAs as compared to prevailing GATS’ commitments. The paper aims to gain a better understanding of whether and how the difficult issues associated with services trade and investment liberalisation are tackled in the PTA-type arrangement and how much further access is granted under PTAs. Using information and data from a selection of 30 PTAs most of them negotiated after 2000 (from Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Europe, among others), the paper establishes that most major PTAs are at the same pace with GATS in securing the rule-making interface between domestic regulation and trade in services. With exception of rules -making (safeguard mechanism, disciplines on subsidies or domestic regulation), where GATS prevails overall when considered in aggregate, PTAs appear to offer superior value added over GATS in all other areas. Across modes and sectors, PTA commitments tend to go significantly beyond GATS offers in terms of improved and new bindings. However, commitments on temporary movement of labour though superior in PTAs remain modest in scope.

This paper analyses exports of textiles and clothing (T&C) from Sub-Saharan African countries in the decade leading to and after a phase out of the Agreement on Textile and Clothing (ATC) (Multi-fibre Agreement restrictions on T&C export)—from 1990s to 2016 using WTO and World Bank data sets—to ascertain the initial effects of the end of quotas and other restrictions on global trade in textile and clothing. Our results show a fall in exports of African countries in the aftermath of the ATC, and a simultaneous and gradual shift of increasing T&C exports by Asian countries (Asia & Pacific) into African markets at a much faster rate than their increase into the U.S. and EU markets.

This paper offers an assessment of the status of services trade in Africa. It addresses three policy questions: how Africa has fared in trade in services trade over the past decade relative to other regions of the world; who the key players and partners are; and the sectors shaping Africa’s services trade. Africa’s trade in commercial services remains very concentrated in a few countries. Over the last 11 years (2006–2016) only three countries—Egypt, South Africa and Morocco accounted for 55.5 percent of Africa’s exports; and five countries—Nigeria, Angola, South Africa, Egypt and Algeria accounted for 55 percent of Africa’s imports). The implication is that conditions facing those countries will continue to influence Africa’s services landscape. Second, infrastructural constraints (including low rates of access to the Internet and poor connectivity) has hindered the participation of African economies in the most dynamicsegment of services trade leading to  high export concentration (in very few sectors such as transport, tourism and travel-related services) heightening its vulnerability to external shocks. Third, with less than 10 percent of the value of services produced in most countries entering into the economy’s export basket, growth in services sector will continue to have very limited influence on the world market (share in global service exports). Reforms and programmes aimed at reducing trade barriers and cost of trading across borders (raised by inefficient transport, border management, and logistics, poorly designed technical regulations and standards, licensing requirements and process, among others) would not only create opportunities to directly expand services exports, but would also promote the development of competitive value chains of production across the region.

The growing evidence of market failure, uncertainties in international cooperation and complexities of the problems of global inequalities has made special and differential treatment of developing countries (S&DT)not only increasingly necessary, but also increasingly difficult. In this paper, we examine the S&DT measures in the WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation (TFA), in addressing the delicate balance between the concerns of developing countries and fostering the TFA’s objectives of expediting the movement, release and clearance of goods, including goods in transit. We find that,while the S&DT appears, in the face value, to offer flexibility for developing countries especially the least developed countries in implementation of the TFA, this flexibility has been eroded by conditioning assistance and support for capacity building to notification of commitments. The linking of support to commitment creates not only dilemma for developing countries on the timing of commitment (implementation) but also exposes them to risks of taking on increasing commitment before prerequisite capacity. Given the ‘best endeavour’ nature of the relevant provisions, it is not apparent that the benefits of implementing the Agreement will outweigh its costs if developed countries relegate on their promise to provide assistance and support for capacity building.

This paper investigates employment responses to trade liberalisation in a developing economy, Myanmar. Using data from the 2014 Census and the 2017, labour force survey and previous surveys contained in Myanmar Statistical Yearbook, 2017, we find that trade liberalization did not affect the relative size of industry sectors in terms of employment. The OLS results finds support for the theoretical predictions of differential responses to trade reforms between sectors. Conversely, while empirical support is found for tariff reduction in influencing sector level employment, the tariff predictors are weaker overall than the sector productivity and competitiveness (in export market) predictors—implying that trade policy reforms need to be correctly tailored to raising productivity of labour force and sector competitiveness if their impact on employment is to be effectively realised.