Setting priorities for services trade reform

National benefit

Australia has strong ‘offensive’ interests in the area of services trade. Australian service providers have much to gain if other countries can be persuaded to make commercially meaningful commitments to liberalise their services sectors. Australia also has a strategic interest in ensuring that the economies of its East Asian neighbours are strong and stable. As its own experience during the Asian financial crisis demonstrated, regulatory reforms can contribute significantly to a flexible and resilient economy. The proposed research will facilitate subsequent analysis of reform scenarios that can be convincing and persuasive to the economies of the region.

The project will also contribute to Australia’s own regulatory reform agenda, by providing new empirical evidence on the economic effects of regulatory interventions in new areas such as education and health. This will inform the Productivity Commission’s understanding of regulatory best practice in these areas, and help guide its recommendations for further regulatory reform.
The proposed research will further establish ANU and the Productivity Commission as world leaders in the quantification of barriers to services trade. It will put ANU in a prime position to undertake the required subsequent research into the effects of services trade reform.

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Conference program and papers — 2009
Conference program and papers — 2008
Conference program and papers — 2007

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