IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rjapxx/v16y2011i1p29-49.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does unilateral liberalization promote WTO GATS commitment? Cross-country evidence from the telecommunications sector

Author

Listed:
  • Quamrul Alam
  • Mohammad Yusuf
  • Ken Coghill

Abstract

This paper addresses two questions: (1) does unilateral liberalization in the telecommunications sector promote a country's commitments in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and (2) what are the possible reasons for a disconnection between unilateral liberalized measures and General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) commitments? On the basis of interviews with trade and WTO experts and a closer comparison between the GATS commitments and actual policies of the selected WTO members in the telecommunications sector, we argue that unilateral liberalization, in most cases, acts as a push factor and provides the grounds for making multilateral WTO commitments. Apart from unilateral liberalization, a country also requires the achievement of ‘sufficient conditions’ before agreeing to undertake liberalization commitments under GATS. Furthermore, the study suggests that the desire to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and also to overcome domestic resistance to reform may encourage each WTO member to make higher commitments. Conversely, a countries’ intention to remain unconstrained by WTO commitments may induce them to commit at a lower level than their actual level of openness.

Suggested Citation

  • Quamrul Alam & Mohammad Yusuf & Ken Coghill, 2011. "Does unilateral liberalization promote WTO GATS commitment? Cross-country evidence from the telecommunications sector," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(1), pages 29-49.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rjapxx:v:16:y:2011:i:1:p:29-49
    DOI: 10.1080/13547860.2011.539399
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13547860.2011.539399
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13547860.2011.539399?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fink, Carsten & Mattoo, Aaditya & Rathindran, Randeep, 2001. "Liberalizing basic telecommunications : the Asian experience," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2718, The World Bank.
    2. Deepak Bhattasali & Shantong Li & Will Martin, 2004. "China and the WTO : Accession, Policy Reform, and Poverty Reduction Strategies," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 14920, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ingo Borchert & Batshur Gootiiz & Aaditya Mattoo, 2014. "Policy Barriers to International Trade in Services: Evidence from a New Database," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 28(1), pages 162-188.
    2. Riham Ahmed Ezzat, 2015. "Paving the way for better telecom performance: Evidence from the telecommunication sector in MENA countries," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-01164199, HAL.
    3. Hertel, Thomas & Zhai, Fan, 2006. "Labor market distortions, rural-urban inequality and the opening of China's economy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 76-109, January.
    4. Vennemo, Haakon & Aunan, Kristin & He, Jianwu & Hu, Tao & Li, Shantong & Rypd3al, Kristin, 2008. "Environmental impacts of China's WTO-accession," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(4), pages 893-911, February.
    5. Antonio Estache & Ana Goicoechea & Marco Manacorda, 2006. "Telecommunications Reform and Performance – A Global View," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 4(3), pages 16-21, October.
    6. Constantinos Stephanou, 2008. "Liberalization of Trade in Financial Services : Lessons from Latin America and the Caribbean," World Bank Publications - Reports 6280, The World Bank Group.
    7. Coxhead, Ian, 2007. "A New Resource Curse? Impacts of China's Boom on Comparative Advantage and Resource Dependence in Southeast Asia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 1099-1119, July.
    8. Anderson, Kym & Huang, Jikun & Ianchovichina, Elena, 2004. "Will China's WTO accession worsen farm household incomes?," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 443-456.
    9. Jing Zhu & Wusheng Yu & Junying Wang & Christian Elleby, 2016. "Tariff Liberalisation, Price Transmission and Rural Welfare in China," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(1), pages 24-46, February.
    10. Gunseli Berik & Xiao-yuan Dong & Gale Summerfield, 2007. "China's Transition and Feminist Economics," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(3-4), pages 1-33.
    11. Riham Ahmed Ezzat, 2015. "Paving the way for better telecom performance: Evidence from the telecommunication sector in MENA countries," Post-Print halshs-01164199, HAL.
    12. Johannah Branson, 2008. "Competition Policy in ASEAN: Case Studies," Asia Pacific Economic Papers 374, Australia-Japan Research Centre, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    13. Jikun Huang & Yu Liu & Will Martin & Scott Rozelle, 2010. "Agricultural Trade Reform and Rural Prosperity: Lessons from China," NBER Chapters, in: China's Growing Role in World Trade, pages 397-423, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Will Martin & Kym Anderson, 2007. "The Doha agenda and agricultural trade reform: the role of economic analysis," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 37(s1), pages 77-87, December.
    15. J. Thomas Lindblad, 2007. "Indonesia and China Today," Journal of Developing Societies, , vol. 23(3), pages 369-392, July.
    16. Mattoo, Aaditya & Rathindran, Randeep, 2006. "Measuring Services Trade Liberalization and Its Impact on Economic Growth: An Illustration," Journal of Economic Integration, Center for Economic Integration, Sejong University, vol. 21, pages 64-98.
    17. Coxhead, Ian, 2004. "International Trade and the Natural Resource 'Curse' in Southeast Asia: Does China's Growth Threaten Regional Development," Staff Paper Series 480, University of Wisconsin, Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    18. Liu, Chun & Jayakar, Krishna, 2012. "The evolution of telecommunications policy-making: Comparative analysis of China and India," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 13-28.
    19. Anderson, Kym, 2004. "Setting the Trade Policy Agenda: What Roles for Economists?," Working Papers 14574, International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium.
    20. Fink, Carsten & Mattoo, Aaditya & Rathindran, Randeep, 2003. "An assessment of telecommunications reform in developing countries," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 443-466, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:rjapxx:v:16:y:2011:i:1:p:29-49. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/rjap .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.