ال 2019 edition of the WTO’s World Trade Report highlights that services have become the most dynamic component of international trade and that its role will continue to expand in the coming decades. It stresses the need to enhance cooperation in the international community to support this expansion. The report was launched during the WTO Public Forum on 9 شهر اكتوبر 2019 بقلم المدير العام روبرتو أزيفيدو. ”من الخدمات اللوجستية, لتمويل, للمعلوماتية, services have become the indispensable backbone of our economies. Services generate more than two-thirds of economic output. They account for more than two thirds of jobs in developing countries, وأربعة أخماس العمالة في البلدان المتقدمة.
“But services also play an increasingly important role in international trade. Global value chains for merchandise could not function without logistics and communications services. وبفضل الرقمنة, services that once had to be delivered face-to-face, مثل التعليم, can now be delivered remotely.Yet services are often overlooked in discussions on global trade, and the extent of their contributions to global trade is not always fully appreciated. يحاول هذا التقرير تصحيح هذا الخطأ "., said DG Azevêdo in his opening remarks.
The report underlines that trade in services — ranging from distribution to financial services — can help countries boost economic growth, enhance domestic firms’ القدرة التنافسية وتعزيز الشمولية. It illustrates how the share of services in international trade has continued to grow, وكيف التكنولوجيا, تغير المناخ, rising incomes and demographic changes will have an impact on services trade in the future. It also suggests ways to maximize the potential of services trade globally in the years to come.
في المتوسط, تمثل الخدمات حوالي نصف الناتج المحلي الإجمالي في جميع أنحاء العالم. For developed economies, they account for around three-quarters of GDP and their proportion is increasing rapidly in developing economies.
وفقا للتقرير, نمت تجارة الخدمات 5.4 per cent per year since 2005, بينما نمت التجارة في السلع في 4.6 في المائة في المتوسط. Trade in computer services and research and development have recorded the most rapid annual growth over the past decade. وفقًا لنموذج التجارة العالمي لمنظمة التجارة العالمية, a new quantitative trade model used by the WTO to make projections about global trade, يمكن أن تزيد حصة الخدمات في التجارة العالمية بنسبة 50 في المائة 2040. This is thanks to lower trade costs and the reduced need for face-to-face interaction due to digitalization. It is also dependent on policy barriers to services trade being lowered.
Many developing economies are becoming increasingly services-based and their share of world services trade has grown by over 10 نقطة مئوية منذ ذلك الحين 2005. ومع ذلك, services trade is concentrated in five developing economies — China; هونغ كونغ، الصين; الهند; the Republic of Korea and Singapore — accounting for over 50 في المائة من تجارة خدمات الاقتصادات النامية في 2017.
يقول التقرير أن تجارة الخدمات قد تساعد المرأة والصغرى, small and medium-sized enterprises (المشاريع الصغيرة والمتوسطة) تلعب دورًا أكثر نشاطًا في التجارة العالمية, خاصة في الاقتصادات النامية, المساعدة في الحد من عدم المساواة الاقتصادية. عندما تبدأ المشروعات المتناهية الصغر والصغيرة والمتوسطة في البلدان النامية في تصدير الخدمات, they are on average two years younger than manufacturing firms. ومع ذلك, they export less than 5 في المائة من إجمالي المبيعات. Services are the main source of employment for women. ومع ذلك, the service sectors that account for most women employment have been so far among the least traded.
على الرغم من تراجعها 9 في المائة بين 2000 و 2017, barriers to trade in services remain much higher than in goods trade. This is largely due to the limited possibilities to supply certain services across the border and the regulatory intensity of many service sectors.
التقنيات هي المحركات الرئيسية لتجارة الخدمات, enabling cross-border trade of services that have traditionally needed face-to-face interaction. Digital technologies are also reducing the cost of trading services. The report finds that if developing countries are able to adopt digital technologies, their share in world services trade could increase by about 15 في المائة 2040.
The report notes that policy barriers to services trade — mainly regulatory measures — are much more complex than in goods trade. The authors of the report note that for services trade to be a powerful engine of economic growth, development and poverty reduction international cooperation will need to be intensified and new pathways will need to be found to advance global trade cooperation and make services a central element of trade policy.
The report can be downloaded from the WTO website and printed copies are available through the مكتبة منظمة التجارة العالمية على الإنترنت.
يتوفر ملخص تنفيذي للتقرير في https://www.wto.org/english/res_e/booksp_e/executive_summary_world_trade_report19_e.pdf
مصدر الأخبار: https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news19_e/wtr_09oct19_e.htm#
