Building capacity to help Africa trade better

Managing the process of services liberalisation

Trade Briefs

Managing the process of services liberalisation

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Transparent laws and regulations can play an important part in the investment decisions of foreign investors. For traders and investors transparency increases predictability, legal certainty, efficiency and access to information while reducing the complexity and costs of trade. Improved transparency can also lead to enhanced legitimacy and accountability of the regulatory authorities, thereby making the country a more attractive investment destination. Transparency is particularly relevant in the area of trade in services because barriers to trade are usually maintained in the domestic regulatory framework. Protection of a country’s domestic services industries and measures to regulate the participation of foreign suppliers are mainly achieved through incorporation in domestic laws and domestic regulations. To improve transparency, it is necessary to publish and manage the prevailing rules and procedures in such a way that interested stakeholders are informed and that enhances the conditions for trading services. This ultimately calls for an effective institution to administer such regulatory information and monitor the process of services liberalisation and domestic reform.

This paper briefly considers the issue of transparency in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and regional services agreements and the impact it can have on investors’ decisions and governments’ administration. An important part of the transparency obligations in international and regional services rules is the establishment of enquiry points to improve transparency by facilitating the provision of certain information. The paper focuses on these institutions and the role they can play in monitoring and managing the process of services liberalisation. It looks at the purpose and functions of the enquiry points and how they can be expanded and upgraded to add value for both state parties and interested investors. This also includes a number of suggestions on how to set up an enquiry point and a regulatory database.


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