E-Books →Global Trade in Services Fear, Facts, and Offshoring

Jensen presents new evidence on the prevalence of service firm participation in international trade. He finds that, in spite of US comparative advantage in service activities, service firms' export participation lags manufacturing firms. Jensen evaluates the impediments to services trade and finds evidence that there is considerable room for liberalization―especially among the large, fast-growing developing economies. The policy recommendations coming out of this path-breaking study are quite clear. The United States should not fear trade in services. It should be pushing aggressively for services trade liberalization. Because other advanced economies have similar comparative advantage in service, the United States should make common cause with the European Union and other advanced economies to encourage the large, fast-growing developing economies to liberalize their service sectors through multilateral negotiations in the General Agreement on Trade in Services and the Government Procurement Agreement. Jensen notes that the coming global infrastructure building boom is of historic proportions and provides an enormous opportunity for US service firms if the proper policies are in place. Increased trade in services might help rebalance the global economy, and both developed and developing economies would benefit from the productivity-enhancing reallocation brought by increased trade in services.
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