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Revitalising Services Trade for Global Growth

Evidence from Ten Years of Monitoring Services Trade Policies through the OECD STRI

The global economy relies increasingly on services for economic growth, employment, and innovation. Moreover, services trade plays a crucial role in mitigating some of the biggest challenges of our times, including by strengthening resilience in supply chains, supporting the digital transformation, and enabling a greener economy. Since 2014, the OECD has monitored services trade policies through the OECD Services Trade Restrictiveness Index (STRI), and offers annual updates on data related to services regulations. The STRI identifies opportunities for policy reform, and facilitates the quantification of benefits of open and well-regulated services markets. Building on a decade of monitoring and analysing services policies, this report presents developments on the evolution of the global regulatory and policy environment for services trade. It highlights that services trade barriers remain high and asymmetric across countries and regions, but that ambitious reforms could yield important benefits in terms of trade cost reductions. The report also serves as a unique roadmap for governments to develop ambitious strategies to revitalise services trade and how to leverage the STRI database, indices, and tools in order to implement impactful reforms.

Published on June 24, 2024