Measurement And Comparison Of Barriers To Trade In Services Of China

Trade in services has gained unprecedented development since the 1970s. Among the important results of the Uruguay Round was the creation of General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and it reflected the importance member countries attached to the development and liberalization of trade in services. There have been numerous findings on barriers to trade in services. This topic becomes even hotter because it provides basis for the evaluation of economic impact of these barriers. Besides, it not only offers reference to policy makers when they are opening service sector, but also lays the foundation for related research.The main components of this paper lie as follows: Firstly, it generally reviews the connotation, classification, causes of barriers to trade in services, by doing this the author tries to give a full landscape of barriers to trade in services. After that, the author gives his own definition according to the research purpose of this paper. Secondly, it introduces the main methods that are applied to measure the barriers to trade in services, which are tools that parallel to barriers of trade in goods, frequency measures, price-based measures, and quantity-based measures. Brief comments are given. Thirdly, it formulates the Frequency Test Model of services barriers based on Probit Model. The frequency test of barriers to trade in services in China is performed to evaluate if China maintained the rights as a developing country when setting its Schedule of Specific Commitments on Services. Fourthly, after makings some adjustments this paper gives the formula form of the measurement of services barriers. Following that, the barriers to trade in services in China is measured and analyzed on a general and sectional basis. Finally, it measures and compares the barriers to trade in services in China and the American on a general and sectional basis, and the similarities and differences of the services barriers of these two countries are also explored. Finally, conclusions are drawn and countermeasures are offered.