Editorial
| Author | Hildegunn Kyvik Nordås |
| DOI | 10.1177/00157325211018935 |
| Published date | 01 August 2021 |
| Date | 01 August 2021 |
Editorial
Introduction
Trade in services accounts for about 24% of global trade. During the past decade,
before COVID-19 hit, trade in services grew faster than trade in goods. This
reflects the proliferation of global value chains where the services links—includ-
ing transport, logistics, finance, distribution and communications—are the glue
that holds value chains together (de Backer & Flaig, 2017). Another important
driver is the digital transformation of production (OECD, 2017; Nath & Liu,
2017). Once digitised and stored as knowledge-capturing products, services can
be traded across borders over digital networks at close to zero transport costs
(Eaton & Kortum, 2018). Finally, with higher levels of income globally and
declining costs of air transport, tourism and business travel have contributed to
the mounting services share of international trade.
Services trade has expanded rapidly despite substantial headwinds since the
financial crisis hit in 2008. Since then, global value chains have matured and
shortened, and the downward trending trade costs observed since the end of World
War II have come to a halt, while Brexit and the Trump administration’s trade
wars have reminded us that deepening globalisation may have paused (Miroudot
& Nordström, 2020).
The COVID-19 pandemic led to a structural shift in trade in services. While
travel and tourism have fallen sharply, services trade over electronic networks has
skyrocketed. Although travel and tourism are likely to recover, it is widely
believed that the digital transition, of example, business services is permanent
(Shingal, 2020). Against this backdrop, the multilateral trading system has sprung
to life and three joint statement initiatives (JSI) of relevance for trade in services
have initiated plurilateral negotiations on e-commerce, domestic regulation in ser-
vices and investment facilitation.
This special issue offers timely new insights into the drivers and implications
of trade in services in developing as well as developed countries. Services trade
research has always suffered from lack of high-quality data. The articles in this
issue offer innovative ways of overcoming this obstacle to rigorous empirical
research. The articles study global and regional aspects of services trade as well
as Indian aspects of services trade and services trade policy. The special issue
gives fresh insights into the maturing of global value chains as well as the impact
of the digital transformation of services on trade policy.
Foreign Trade Review
56(3) 235–237, 2021
©2021 Indian Institute of
Foreign Trade
Reprints and permissions:
in.sagepub.com/journals-permissions-india
DOI: 10.1177/00157325211018935
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