Services Trade & Development. The experience of Zambia *
Some see trade in services as irrelevant to the development agenda for least developed countries (LDCs). Others see few benefits from past market openings by LDCs. This book debunks both views. It finds that serious imperfections in Zambia’s reform of services trade deprived the country of significant benefits and diminished faith in liberalization.
What is to be done? Move aggressively and consistently to eliminate barriers to entry and competition. Develop and enforce regulations to deal with market failures. And implement proactive policies to widen the access of firms, farms, and consumers to services of all kinds. These lessons from Zambia are applicable to all LDCs.
In all this, international agreements can help. But to succeed, LDCs mustcommit to open markets and their trading partners must provide assistance for complementary reforms. Zambia, which leads the LDC group at the World Trade Organization, can show the way.
AADITYA MATTOO is Lead Economist in the Development Research Group of the World Bank. He is leading a project on international trade in services, specializes in trade policy analysis and the operation of the WTO, and is helping enhance policy-making and negotiating capacity in developing countries. Prior to joining the Bank in 1999, he was Economic Counselor at the Trade in Services Division, World Trade Organization (WTO), Geneva. He also served as Economic Affairs Officer in the Economic Research and Analysis and Trade Policy Review Division of the WTO. Mr. Mattoo taught economics at the University of Sussex and Churchill College, Cambridge University. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from King’s College, University of Cambridge, and M.Phil in Economics from St. Edmund Hall, University of Oxford. He is co-editor of Development, Trade and the WTO: A Handbook, Moving People to Deliver Services, and Domestic Regulation and Services Trade Liberalization, and has written extensively on trade and trade in services.
LUCY PAYTON works with the Trade Team of the Development Research Group of the World Bank. She contributes to the department’s advisory work on trade policy and works on a number of trade related research projects. She is currently focused on analysing legal and regulatory barriers to trade in the insurance, banking, telecommunications and other services sectors. Prior to that, she did a cross-country empirical analysis of the effectiveness of government funded export promotion agencies. Lucy holds a Masters in International Relations and International Economics from the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University.
