Magister Legum - LLM / The reason for highlighting the difference between GATT and GATS is to focus on the impact of these agreements on the developing countries and in particular the latter will be the main focus of this paper. The economies and governments of the developing states are struggling to generate sustainable capitol growth and maintain financial stability to enhance economic growth. This is due to dictators who rule in such a manner to maintain power irrespective of the future economic viability of their state. Thus the environment for sustainable economic growth is wrath with political instability, lack of proper financial control and eagerness to attract foreign investment and allowing market access to developed states. / South Africa

Magister Economicae - MEcon / Throughout its development, trade has been regarded as a vital component of economic growth and development. Both theoretical and empirical studies consider international trade to be a major determinant of the growth of any economy. International trade in services has been rising ever since trade in services was incorporated into international trade agreements after the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations in 1994. This, coupled with the ever-improving state of technological innovation, has made services trade an important aspect of the development agenda of most countries. However, just like any other endeavour, offshoring of services has both opportunities as well as threats. The study examines two research questions relating to the growth-enhancing impact of South Africa’s exports and imports of services. Firstly, the study examines the contribution of services exports to economic growth in South Africa. Secondly, the study determines the impact that imported services has had on South Africa’s economic growth. In spite of the global rise of trade in services, South Africa’s export of services accounts for only 14 percent of total exports, while the import of services constitutes 20 percent of total imports. Using quarterly time series data for the period 1980 to 2012, the study adopts the ordinary least squares method to estimate the contribution of both exports and imports to output expansion within an aggregation production function setup. The empirical results show that the export of services influences influence South Africa’s economic growth significantly in both the long-run and the short-run. While the relationship is positive in the long-run, it is negative in the short-run. The results also indicate that the import of services significantly and positively affects real output growth in both the long-run and the short-run.

Chapter 1 Low-skilled Migration and Altruism: Population ageing has become a common concern among welfare states, including Canada and most of the OECD countries. Immigration has been identified as a solution to help sustain labour-force growth in industrialized countries, and as the factor most able to mitigate dire predictions of future fiscal imbalances. This chapter examines the impact of low-skilled immigration in a host country where households are altruists with a pay-as-you-go pension system to support the elderly. It demonstrates that low-skilled immigration does not harm the welfare of the domestic population. We use an overlapping-generations model similar to the work of Razin and Sadka (2000) but introduce paternalistic altruism into the life-cycle framework. Within this context of inter-generational altruism and pay-as-you-go pension systems, the initial negative fiscal impact of low-skilled migrants is compensated, thus, all income groups (high and low) and all age groups (young and old) benefit from migration. // Chapter 2 Growth and Sustainability: In light of the major environmental issues experienced by several countries in the last decades, several papers have advocated the rethinking of the role of governments in environmental preservation. This chapter develops an overlapping-generations model of environmental quality and production and investigates the potential role of governmental participation in the preservation of the quality of the environment so as to achieve both economic growth and environmental sustainability. The analysis suggests that long term economic growth and environment sustainability can be maintained with tax-funded environmental programs in a context of a negative production externality on the quality of the environment. // Chapter 3 The Incidence of Geography on Canada’s Services Trade: We estimate geographic barriers to export trade in nine service categories for Canada's provinces from 1997 to 2007 using the structural gravity model. Constructed Home, Domestic and Foreign Bias indexes capture the direct plus indirect effect of services trade costs on intra-provincial, inter-provincial and international trade relative to their frictionless benchmarks. Barriers to services international trade are huge relative to inter-provincial trade and large relative to goods international trade. A novel test confirms the fit of structural gravity with services trade data.

Doctor Legum - LLD / Regional integration has been part of Africa’s overarching strategy for economic transformation. To further enhance sustainable development and economic growth, in the African continent intra-regional trade is equally as important as international trade. Therefore, African countries are faced with the daunting task of adopting comprehensive and well-structured measures to ensure the movement of goods and people across borders are seamless and unrestrictive. Free movement of persons in particular is one of the core tenets of regional integration, building towards a common market. To that effect, the African Union (AU) based on Agenda 2063 has agreed on a Continental Free Trade Area and a Protocol on Movement of Persons indicating a commitment of attaining a single market where goods, persons and services can move freely across national borders. With the Southern African Development Community (SADC) being a Regional Economic Community (REC) recognised under the AU, this thesis seeks to argue for deeper integration by ensuring the movement of persons in the SADC is regulated beyond the scope that is recognised internationally under the International laws influencing the movement of persons. Also, this thesis argues for amendment of certain provisions in the SADC Protocol on the Facilitation of the Movement of Persons to further facilitate intra-regional trade. The SADC operates to an extent as a Free Trade Area (FTA) where goods are traded duty free across borders and the intention is to go higher up the integration ladder to become a Common Market by 2015 and an Economic Union with a Single Currency by 2018. Targets which has not been met to date. Article 5(2) (d) and Article 23 of the SADC Trade Protocol realises the significance of policy development in promoting free movement of people and services within the SADC region. To facilitate the movement of people, the SADC drafted a Protocol on the Free Movement of People in 1995. This Protocol never materialised and it was subsequently replaced by a Protocol on Facilitation on Movement of People which is limited in scope and is not yet operational as ratification by two third majority of Member States has not occurred. In 2012, a Protocol on Trade in Services which also within a limited scope influences the movement of persons in the region was also concluded but is not yet ratified by Member States of the SADC. The absence of a single consistent and comprehensive framework makes people vulnerable to informal practices at the border. Thus, the issue of ensuring free movement of people between SADC Member States still remains debatable and unresolved.

Pasaulyje vyksta aktyvūs procesai dėl eksporto politikos skatinimo, investicijų, didesnio prekių ir paslaugų mainų balanso, inovacijų pritraukimo, t.y. veiksnių sąlygojančių ekonominio vystymosi tempus, vis svarbesnį vaidmenį priskiriant tarptautinei prekybai paslaugomis. Darbo aktualumas siejamas su neišnaudotu paslaugų augimo potencialu tarptautinėje prekyboje, kuris suteikia galimybes paslaugų sektoriui gauti didesnę pelno normą ir pritraukia kapitalą bei darbo jėgą iš tradicinių veiklų įmonių, todėl paslaugų plėtra turėtų išlikti pagrindiniu ekonominių ir socialinių permainų katalizatoriumi. Tyrimo tikslas– išryškinti tarptautinės prekybos paslaugomis teorinius aspektus ir pagrįsti plėtros tendencijas Lietuvoje. Darbo uždaviniai: 1. Išanalizuoti pagrindinius paslaugų klasifikavimo principus, atskleidžiant paslaugų plėtros tendencijas, barjerus ir ES Paslaugų direktyvos svarbą plėtros procesams; 2. Remiantis sudarytu tiriamuoju tarptautinės prekybos paslaugomis modeliu, atlikti tarptautinės prekybos paslaugomis plėtros Lietuvos atžvilgiu, tyrimą ir pristatyti ekspertų nuomonių apklausos rezultatus; 3. Parengti tarptautinės prekybos paslaugomis plėtros Lietuvoje prognozės, apibrėžiant galimybes, kliūtis ir pagrindžiant plėtros tendencijas. Tyrimo metodai: mokslinės literatūros analizė, statistinių duomenų analizė, lyginamoji analizė, anketinė apklausa, prognozavimas. Tyrimu atskleista, kad tarptautinės prekybos paslaugomis tendencijas tikslinga vertinti pagal suteikiamų... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / International trade in services grown significantly, yet little research has been undertaken to understand international services. Major features of services have much in common with other services, being, however, more closely related to country’s economy. The actuality of the study is related to the potential of increase of services in domestic market in hand which gives possibilities to service sector get higher rate of profit and attracts capital and labour force from enterprises of traditional activity, therefore the development of services should remain the main catalyst of economical and social changes. The goal of the work – to highlight the theoretical aspects of international trade in services and foresee the main tendencies of Lithuanian international trade in services. Tasks are presented: 1. Analyze the main types of International services classification and exploring tendencies of development, to set barriers and instruments of regulation EU Services Directive. 2. According to holistic model of evaluation of development of international trade in services, to make research of Lithuanian International trade in services and set the results form experts’ survey. 3. Forecasts the development tendencies of Lithuanian International trade in services, barriers and propose possibilities. Methods of investigation: referring to the studies of foreign and Lithuanian scientists, analysis and synthesis of literature, survey of experts, forecasting methods. The study... [to full text]

Magister Legum - LLM / South Africa

經濟全球化帶動了全球服務貿易的發展，使其在各國經濟的地位日漸重要，服務貿易的發展及服務貿易競爭力之分析與研究便成為重要議題。自蘇聯解體以來，俄羅斯服務業逐漸成長，帶動了服務貿易的發展，無論是總量或成長率皆呈現上升趨勢，同時，俄羅斯於2012年加入WTO，更為其服務貿易之發展帶來契機。 　　本研究以質化方法探討俄羅斯服務貿易之發展現況，並分析俄羅斯加入WTO時對服務貿易所作之承諾，最後再以貿易競爭力指標（TC指數）輔以顯示性比較優勢指標（RCA指數），對俄羅斯2006年至2015年之服務貿易競爭力做實證分析。 　　研究結果顯示，這段時間內俄羅斯服務貿易各項主要指標乃由進口所主導，並呈現貿易逆差之局勢；而俄羅斯加入WTO時，對於其發展較落後的服務貿易項目如金融服務設定有較多的保護措施及年限，對於其發展較佳之服務貿易項目如運輸服務則開放較多。此外，在服務貿易競爭力方面，俄羅斯整體服務貿易國際競爭力與出口競爭力皆偏弱，且在傳統服務貿易產業上較具有比較優勢。其中，商品相關服務及運輸服務是俄羅斯較具國際競爭力之項目，營造服務則具有較佳之出口競爭力；此外，金融服務、專利及知識產權服務則是俄羅斯國際競爭力最弱之項目。 / Economic globalization has furthered the development of trade in services around the world, such that it has come to play an increasingly important role in national economies. Therefore, the development and competitiveness of trade in services has become an important issue to be analyzed and researched. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the constant growth of the service sector has led to the development of trade in services, which has an upward trend both in total volume and growth rate. Meanwhile, the accession of Russia to the WTO in 2012 has brought even more opportunities for the development of trade in services. In this study, a qualitative method is used to explore the current state of the development of trade in services and to analyze the commitments that Russia made in relation to trade in services upon its accession to the WTO. Finally, the Trade Competitiveness Index (TC Index) is used in combination with the Revealed Comparative Advantage Index (RCA Index) to empirically analyze Russia’s trade competitiveness between 2006 and 2015. The results demonstrate that the main indexes of Russia’s trade in services were dominated by imports during this period, as well as present its state of trade deficit. Following Russia’s accession to the WTO, the Russian government has on the one hand set more safeguard measures and a longer duration for trade in service items which are less developed, such as financial services, and on the other hand, opened the trade in service items which are better developed, such as transport. In addition, in terms of the competitiveness of trade in services, Russia is weaker both in overall international competitiveness of trade in services and export competitiveness, and enjoys greater comparative advantage in the traditional sectors of trade in services, among which goods-related services and transport are items of greater international competitiveness and construction are of greater export competitiveness. However, financial services, along with charges for the use of intellectual property are the items for which Russia experiences the weakest international competitiveness.

A lista de compromissos é o instrumento jurídico que consolida os compromissos adotados pelos Membros da Organização Mundial do Comércio (OMC) na área de serviços. O modelo de lista de compromissos adotado pelo Acordo Geral para o Comércio de Serviços (GATS) permite que os Membros decidam quais setores ou subsetores de serviços e modos de prestação irão consolidar compromissos. Esses compromissos vinculam os Membros. Logo, as inscrições nas listas de compromissos devem ser claras e precisas, especialmente com relação ao que está e o que não está incluído no compromisso. Considerando que a estrutura da lista de compromissos e a metodologia utilizada pelos Membros para assunção de compromissos são extremamente complexas, é importante identificar quais são os principais problemas apresentados por elas, à luz das regras e objetivos da OMC, com vistas a buscar soluções ou sugerir alternativas para esses problemas. A análise desses problemas também deve levar em consideração os contenciosos envolvendo serviços e as conclusões a que chegou o Órgão de Solução de Controvérsias da OMC nesses casos. Deve-se verificar, também, se a estrutura da lista de compromissos e a metodologia para a inscrição de compromissos em serviços são compatíveis com o preâmbulo e com o Artigo XIX do GATS, ou seja: se permitem a liberalização progressiva do comércio internacional de serviços; se garantem flexibilidade apropriada aos países em desenvolvimento para que liberalizem menos setores e tipos de operação; se promovem os interesses de todos os participantes do Sistema Multilateral de Comércio; se têm como objetivo a promoção do crescimento econômico de todas as partes envolvidas e, sobretudo, o desenvolvimento dos países em desenvolvimento e de menor desenvolvimento econômico relativo; se resguardam o direito dos Membros de regular e de introduzir novas leis dentro de seus territórios, com vistas a atingir objetivos de política pública; e se respeitam as assimetrias existentes com relação aos graus de desenvolvimento das legislações nacionais. / The schedule of commitments is the legal instrument which contains the commitments made by the Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in services. The schedule adopted by the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) allows the Members to decide in which sectors or subsectors and modes of supply they will make commitments. These commitments are binding to the Members. Therefore, the entries in the schedules must be clear and precise, especially regarding what is and what is not included in the commitment. Considering the structure of the schedules and the scheduling methodology are extremely complex, it is important to identify what are their main problems in view of the rules and objectives of the WTO, in order to look for solutions to these problems or to suggest alternatives. The analysis of these problems must take into account the cases involving trade in services and the findings of the Dispute Settlement Body of the WTO in those cases. It should also be analyzed whether the structure of the schedules and the scheduling methodology comply with GATS preamble and Article XIX, or, in other words: if they allow the progressive liberalization of the trade in services; if they guarantee appropriate flexibility for developing countries for opening fewer sectors and types of transactions; if they promote the interest of all participants of the Multilateral Trading System; if they promote the economic growth of all the trading partners and, above all, the development of developing and the least-developed countries; if they acknowledge the right of the Members to regulate and to introduce new regulations within their territories in order to meet national policy objectives; and if they respect the asymmetries existing with respect to the degree of development of the services regulations.

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