Une analyse critique des mesures de restriction aux échanges de services

Trade in services covers four modes of supply: cross-border trade, consumption abroad, commercial presence and presence of natural persons. Thus, impediments to trade in services involve the regulatory framework. Domestic reforms are at stake to provide falling prices and technology transfers arising from trade liberalisation for forward using industries. We look at the way gravity equations explain the determinants of trade in services and how they permit to assess the gain arising from the removal of impediments to trade. First, we criticise the measurements of barriers to trade in services. We then show that if gravity equations provide a good fit for international transactions in services, they tend to overestimate the impacts of impediments to trade in services and thus the growth of exports and fdi inflows occurring from liberalisation. Classification JEL : F13, F14, F53, L8