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The EU Offer of Service Trade Liberalization in the Doha Round: Evidence of a Not‐Yet‐Perfect Customs Union

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  • ROLF J. LANGHAMMER

Abstract

While the EU is a customs union in merchandise trade (goods), it has not yet reached this stage of integration in service trade. Trade policies between individual Member States and non‐Member States vary in services. Given the remaining national sovereignties in regulating service trade against other EU Member States also, the EU is not yet even a free trade area. How far the EU is from a customs union in service trade is very difficult to assess because of the non‐quantitative nature of trade restrictions in this sector. This article gives a first hint of the distance from a customs union by calculating frequency indices of trade measures by refining the 1995 Hoekman index. The database is the EU's first offer in service trade in the WTO Doha round in February 2003. It emerges that the deviation from a customs union is not substantial, but still exists because of differences in national policies against non‐Member States which are particularly relevant in the mode of supply via labour flows. Inter alia, policy measures comprise economic needs tests, residence and nationality criteria. The article concludes that there is reason to assume that, in the course of the Doha round negotiations, some if not most of the national measures will be given up. Therefore, multilateral trade negotiations will be instrumental in bringing the EU to a complete customs union as happened in goods trade between 1958 and 1968 when the Dillon and Kennedy rounds helped to complete the customs union in industrial goods.

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  • Rolf J. Langhammer, 2005. "The EU Offer of Service Trade Liberalization in the Doha Round: Evidence of a Not‐Yet‐Perfect Customs Union," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(2), pages 311-325, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:43:y:2005:i:2:p:311-325
    DOI: 10.1111/j.0021-9886.2005.00557.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Isabelle Rabaud & Thierry Montalieu, 2006. "Trade in Services : how does it Work for MENA Countries?," Post-Print halshs-00204977, HAL.
    2. Joseph Francois & Bernard Hoekman, 2010. "Services Trade and Policy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(3), pages 642-692, September.
    3. Elisabeth M. Christen & Joseph Francois & Bernard Hoekman, 2012. "CGE Modeling of Market Access in Services," Economics working papers 2012-08, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    4. Eschenbach, Felix & Hoekman, Bernard, 2006. "Services policies in transition economies: on the EU and WTO as commitment mechanisms," World Trade Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(3), pages 415-443, November.
    5. Bernard Hoekman & Çağlar Özden, 2010. "The Euro–Mediterranean Partnership: Trade in Services as an Alternative to Migration?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(4), pages 835-857, September.
    6. Bernard Hoekman & Aaditya Mattoo & André Sapir, 2007. "The political economy of services trade liberalization: a case for international regulatory cooperation?," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 23(3), pages 367-391, Autumn.
    7. Eschenbach, Felix & Hoekman, Bernard, 2006. "Services policies in transition economies : on the European Union and the World Trade Organization as commitment mechanisms," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3951, The World Bank.
    8. Nadine Behncke, 2013. "Assessing the impact of European Integration on sectoral trade in services," FIW Working Paper series 109, FIW.
    9. Carolina Lennon, 2008. "Trade in services: Cross-border trade vs commercial presence. Evidence of complementarity," PSE Working Papers halshs-00586217, HAL.
    10. Rolf J. Langhammer, 2010. "Unordnung in der internationalen Handelsordnung: Befunde, Gründe, Auswirkungen und Therapien," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 11(1), pages 75-98, February.
    11. Christen, Elisabeth & Francois, Joseph & Hoekman, Bernard, 2013. "Computable General Equilibrium Modeling of Market Access in Services," Handbook of Computable General Equilibrium Modeling, in: Peter B. Dixon & Dale Jorgenson (ed.), Handbook of Computable General Equilibrium Modeling, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 1601-1643, Elsevier.
    12. Giuseppe Bertola & Lorenza Mola, 2010. "Services Provision and Temporary Mobility: Freedoms and Regulation in the EU," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 633-653, April.
    13. Bianka Dettmer, 2012. "The European Union's service directive: Contrasting ex ante estimates with empirical evidence," Jena Economics Research Papers 2012-019, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    14. Langhammer, Rolf J., 2005. "Jeder macht was er will, keiner macht was er soll: zur permissiven Haltung der Welthandelsordnung gegenüber regionalen Integrationsabkommen und deren Kosten," Open Access Publications from Kiel Institute for the World Economy 3784, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    15. Bianka Dettmer, 2012. "Business services outsourcing and economic growth: Evidence from a dynamic panel data approach," Jena Economics Research Papers 2012-049, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    16. Langhammer, Rolf J., 2008. "Why a market place must not discriminate: The case against a US-EU free trade agreement," Kiel Working Papers 1407, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).

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