Barriers to and Priorities for International Trade in Services

This Jean Monnet workshop is supported by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. Services form the largest part of the economy for Australia and for European countries. There is great interest in services trade liberalisation in the trade treaty that is currently being negotiated between Australia and the European Union (EU). This workshop takes two important perspectives on exploring where the negotiating priorities should lie. The results from the workshop will incorporated into an ANUCES Briefing Paper which will be widely disseminated later this year. The Briefing Paper will focus on impediments to services trade and priorities for trade services negotiations. The morning sessions of the workshop will explore the use of the OECD’s Services Trade Restrictiveness Index (STRI) as a tool for identifying priorities, with a presentation by ANUCES Visiting Fellow Steve Nerlich. Professor Nazire Dinçer, from the TED University Trade Research Centre, will discuss her alternative approach of estimating tariff equivalent barriers and policy induced barriers to services trade. Finally Ms Maura Décosterd, a Swiss-based trade consultant, will present work she and colleagues have done using the STRI to estimate ad valorem equivalents. This work includes estimating the impact of alternative Brexit scenarios on Northern Ireland’s services sector. The afternoon sessions will review the evidence from recent trade treaties concluded by the EU and views from the services industries. Dr Deborah Elms from the Asian Trade Centre in Singapore will discuss the services outcomes from the EU–Singapore treaty. ANUCES Visiting Fellow, Sihui Ong, will present on the services outcomes from the EU’s treaties with Canada and Japan. We will then turn to perspectives from the service industries. Pascal Kerneis, Managing Director, European Services Forum, will provide some views from Europe, and Dr Hazel Moir will summarise views from Australia’s services industries. The workshop will end with an open forum on trade negotiating priorities and areas of sensitivity. The panel will include the speakers mentioned above plus Professor Erik van der Marel, Senior Economist at the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE), and Ms Anne McNaughton from the ANU College of Law. Registration from 9.30am. The workshop will commence promptly at 10am. For information about the Jean Monnet Trade in Services project, visit: http://bit.ly/trade-in-services

Date and Times

Location

The Nye Hughes Room, 67C Liversidge Street, 2600 Canberra

Speaker

Contact

  •  ANU Centre for European Studies
     +61 2 6125 9896