# **1  THE WB-WTO SERVICES TRADE POLICY DATABASE**

The Services Trade Policy Database (STPD) builds on a number of prior initiatives, notably by the WTO, the World Bank and the OECD.<sup>5</sup> The STPD contains information on policies and regulations that affect international trade in services on a cross-border basis, through a commercial presence, or through the presence of a natural person.<sup>6</sup> We consider policies and regulations applied by the importing/'host' economy (i.e. the economy where the services consumer is located), which affect the ability of foreign suppliers to supply services to consumers in that economy. Certain domestic regulations that apply to both domestic and foreign agents are also covered insofar as they affect trade. The database focuses on economies’ Most-Favoured Nation (MFN) policies.

The database contains information on services policy and regulation in 68 economies – 39 highincome, 16 upper-middle and 13 lower-middle income economies (see Annex 1).<sup>7</sup> The sectoral coverage is identical to that in the World Bank survey of 2008-2011. Apart from the continued importance of these sectors and sub-sectors for any economy – a factor that justified the World Bank's approach at the time – sticking to the same sectoral coverage in 2016 has allowed us to have a 'time' dimension in our data, and hence to analyze policy developments in the last decade. That being said, three subsectors were added to the 2016 data to ensure greater comparability with the OECD Services Trade Restrictiveness Regulatory (OECD STRI) database. The database therefore covers 5 major service sectors that are further disaggregated into a total of 23 subsectors, namely financial services (commercial banking, life insurance, non-life insurance, reinsurance), telecommunications services (fixed-line, mobile, Internet), distribution (retail, wholesale), transportation (air freight domestic, air freight international, passenger domestic, passenger international, rail freight, road freight, maritime freight transport, maritime auxiliary services, maritime intermediation and other), professional services (accounting, auditing, legal services on foreign law, legal services on domestic law, advice and representation services).<sup>8</sup> See Annex 2 for more details on the sectoral and modal coverage.

For the purposes of data collection, economies and information sources were divided into two groups. For 25 of these economies the information underlying the updated STRI was collected through a survey conducted jointly by the World Bank and WTO in 2016-2017, while information for the remaining 43 economies was sourced from the OECD STRI regulatory database (2016 information), thanks to the cooperation of the OECD, which is gratefully acknowledged.

Drawing from the World Bank's experience with its original Services Trade Restrictions Database (STRD) and developments since then, notably the OECD STRI, we developed a new classification of measures affecting trade in services. We organized measures into four main policy categories, namely a) conditions on market entry, b) conditions on operations, c) measures affecting competition, and d) regulatory environment and administrative procedures. Relevant policy measures that potentially affect trade but do not fit neatly into any of these four categories are included in a fifth category – miscellaneous measures (see Box 1).<sup>9</sup>

> 5 For an overview of prior initiatives, please refer to Borchert et al (2019).

> 6 While strictly speaking we do not cover “consumption abroad”, a mode of delivery that is particularly important in services like tourism, education and health – sectors not covered by the database – we take in fact a broad view of 'cross-border supply', covering measures that apply directly to the consumer, such as the ability to make cross-border payments.

> 7 The selection of economies was based on two parameters: size of the economy, using Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a basis; and participation in world services trade on a balance-of-payment (BoP) basis.  The full list of economies currently covered is reproduced in Annex 1 to this paper.  At the time of writing, data collection is being finalized for signatories of the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA), Jordan and Niger. Additional data on a significant number of economies in Africa are in the process of being collected or updated. These data will be incorporated in the STPD in due course.

> 8 At the time of writing, policy information in additional sectors including architecture, engineering, computer, construction, tourism, and health services is being collected for CEFTA Parties, Jordan, and other African economies.

> 9 For more information on the classification, see Borchert et al. (2019).

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