Overview

Services refers to a growing range of economic activities, such as audiovisual; construction; computer and related services; energy; express delivery; e-commerce; financial; professional (such as accounting and legal services); retail and wholesaling; transportation; tourism; and telecommunications. Services have become an important priority in U.S. trade flows and trade policy and of global trade in general, accounting for 752.4 billion Dollars of U.S. exports and 82 percent of U.S. private sector jobs. The types and volume of services that can be traded, however, are limited by their intangibility (as compared to goods), the requirement for direct buyer-provider contact, and other unique characteristics. The Administration is engaged in discussions on potential and existing trade agreements that include services as a significant component. For each agreement, Congress may consider legislation to implement the agreements in the future. The United States is the world's largest exporter of services (14 percent of the global total in 2015) and the largest importer (10 percent of the global total in 2015). Rapid advances in information technology and the related growth of global value and supply chains have reduced barriers to trade in services, making an expanding range of services tradable across national borders. A number of economists have argued that behind the border barriers imposed by foreign governments prevent U.S. trade in services from expanding to their full potential. The United States continues to negotiate trade agreements to lower these barriers. It has been a leading force in doing so under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and in free trade agreements, all of which contain significant provisions on market access and rules for liberalizing trade in services. The United States is currently at different stages with multiple trade agreements that include trade in services: -Renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico; -Potential continued negotiation of the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), a plurilateral agreement outside of the WTO with 22 other countries; -Potential continued negotiation of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) free trade agreement with the European Union (EU), which would cover the world's two largest providers of and traders in services; and -Potential new and updated bilateral free trade agreements with other partners. In each case, participants have difficult issues to address and the outlook for progress is uncertain. One issue is whether bilateral, regional, and plurilateral agreements would support or undermine the pursuit of a more extensive, multilateral agreement in the GATS. Congress and U.S. trade negotiators face other issues, including how to balance the need for effective regulations with the objective of opening markets for U.S. exports and trade in services; ensuring adequate and accurate data to measure trade in services to better inform trade policy; and determining whether further international cooperation efforts are needed to improve the regulatory environment for services trade beyond initial market access. This report provides background information and analysis on these and other emerging issues and U.S. international trade in services, in general. In addition, it examines existing and potential agreements, NAFTA, TiSA, and T-TIP, as they relate to services trade.

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