International Trade Outlook for Latin America and the Caribbean: Recovery in an uncertain context

International Trade Outlook for Latin America and the Caribbean • 2017
Chapter II
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A significant bottleneck for MERCOSUR in furthering services liberalization objectives
is its members’ weak domestic incorporation of agreed rules relating to services trade,
which prevents some of the rules from entering into force (see table II.4). Regional
integration could be fostered if the Pacific Alliance and MERCOSUR work towards
convergence of their regulations on services trade and FDI.
Table II.4
MERCOSUR and the Pacific Alliance: GATS-plus and GATS-extra commitments, 2017
The Pacific Alliance includes comparatively more and deeper disciplines than MERCOSUR
Deeper commitments
than in GATS-plus
MERCOSUR
Pacific
Alliance
New disciplines not addressed
in GATS-extra
MERCOSUR
Cross-border trade in services GATS X Competition measures --- ---
Domestic regulation GATS X Labour market regulation X ---
Recognition X X E-commerce --- X
Localization (presence, residency) GATS X Consumer protection X ---
Transparency GATS X Consumer protection in e-commerce X X
Telecommunications GATS X Data protection and privacy X X
Financial services GATS X Cross-border transfers of information --- X
Temporary entry for business persons X --- Localization of computing facilities --- X
Maritime transport GATS X Innovation policies X ---
Air transport 1--- --- Information society --- ---
Air transport related services GATS X Research and technology --- ---
Professional services X X Express delivery/courier services --- ---
State aids (subsidies) GATS X Audiovisual services X ---
State-owned enterprises and
monopolies (in services)
GATS GATS Energy (related services) --- ---
Movement of capital GATS X Road freight, transport and logistics services --- ---
Taxation X X Environmental services --- ---
Education and training X ---
Regulatory cooperation/ convergence --- X
Trade-related investment
measures (in services)
--- X
Investment measures --- X
Services statistics X X
SMEs X X
Pacific
Alliance
Source: A. Palacio, “Avances en la gobernanza regional del comercio de servicios: los casos de la Alianza del Pacífico y MERCOSUR”, Comercio Internacional series,
Santiago, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), 2017, unpublished.
Note: GATS: incorporates only provisions of the General Agreement on Trade in Services; X: incorporates some of the criteria for each discipline in the issue area;
---: no references to this theme in the subregional agreement.
D. Moving forward
Several findings and recommendations emerge from this chapter. On the basis of official
statistics, it concludes that the region’s competitiveness in trade in services stagnated
in the last decade. This performance is poor compared to competitors in Asia, such as
China, India and ASEAN, which all expanded their market shares substantially. Within
the region, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama and Peru improved their global market
share, whereas Chile, the Dominican Republic and Mexico lost market share. Moreover,
all the subregions, except for Central America, saw worsening trade balances in both
total services and modern services during this period. The countries that most gained
market share in modern services in this period were Argentina Brazil, Costa Rica and
Panama, whereas Chile, Mexico, and Peru lost market share.