The Impact Of Services Trade Liberalization On The Gvc Of Producer Services From The Perspective Of RTA

In the wave of extensive conclusion of RTA with in-depth trade in services clauses,some countries have achieved higher level of services opening,and have accelerated the frequency of international services flow.The acceleration of Global manufacturing towards“Servicification” has also deepened the integration of some countries into the GVCs.Against the background of the increasing trend of servicification,producer services,which are closely related to the value chain,play an even more important role in promoting the deep integration of countries into GVCs.However,the current overall levels of barriers to trades in services are still too high to fully release the growth potential of countries’ trade value added.In this view,it is important to learn how to improve China’s RTA layout and the clauses of trade in services for increasing the services trade liberalization,and improving the embedded degree of producer services GVC.This paper constructs the services trade liberalization index from the quality and quantity dimensions of RTA,measures the levels of services trade liberalization in 61 countries from2005 to 2015 under the RTAs’ policies,and measures the GVC participation in the producer services based on TIVA database.Meanwhile,it also examines the impact of the services trade liberalization on the GVC participation of producer services.The conclusion shows that the services trade liberalization has a significant effect on the GVC participation of producer services.Among them,services trade liberalization significantly promotes the backward participation of GVC in producer services in developed countries,but has no significant impact on its forward participation.The estimation of the forward and backward participation of developing countries leads to the opposite conclusion,that is,the services trade liberalization promotes forward participation significantly while inhibited the backward participation.And it has a positive impact on increasing GVC participation in RTA members’ producer services,such as wholesale and retail,IT,financial and insurance activities.Furthermore,the services trade liberalization can enhance the GVC participation of producer services in RTA members,by reducing the cost of services trade and increasing FDI in services.