GATT Negotiations on Services : Analytical Issues and Data Needs

Abstract

Largely as a result of U.S. initiative, services have been given a prominent place on the international policy agenda. This was demonstrated in September 1986 in Punta del Este by the resolution of the GATT member countries to include services issues in the new (Uruguay) round of multilateral trade negotiations. In preparing for these negotiations, it is important to identify the critical analytical and policy issues that are likely to surface in the area of trade in services, to determine whether sufficient data exist in the United States and elsewhere to permit the requisite analysis and to identify the main gaps in the existing data and assess what can and needs to be done to overcome these gaps for analytical purposes and for the successful conduct of the negotiations. In what follows, we discuss each of the foregoing matters in separate sections and conclude with some general observations.