About our work 

Services play a strategic role in development through its provision of basic infrastructure such as health, education, telecommunications and financial services. Hence, service provision is directly related to poverty reduction. The role of Government is considered critical by way of being a major provider of such services as well as in regulating it. Although services is a substantial portion of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and is one of the largest sources of employment in developing countries, the participation of most developing countries in international trade remains modest. The challenge for these countries is to identify their services areas for growth and strengthen domestic supply capacity to provide those services and contribute to economic growth in a meaningful way.

The increasing level of ambition in providing market access commitments in services through the WTO negotiations related to the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) could thereby lead to imbalanced benefits, ignoring the GATS objective of progressive liberalization, promotion of growth and development of developing countries, consideration of national policy objectives and recognition of the right to regulate. Beyond multilateral trading arrangements, the pace and direction of services liberalization is also being driven through regional/bilateral fora.

The work of the Trade for Development Programme (TDP) on services emphasizes:

• Policy space and flexibility at the international trade level (multilateral and regional) to pursue national development objectives and priorities in services
• Trade rules which facilitate the strengthening of domestic services capacity and fulfilment of services related priorities for national development,
• Least Developed countries participating as equal members in the trading system.

This work is carried out through policy-oriented research and analysis; technical assistance and capacity building and an Outreach, Communication and Dissemination Strategy.

Publications

For publications and papers on this issue area click here

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