measures that relate to non-market access and non-discriminatory measures that are of particular interest for our TFiS categorization, namely measures related to **(a) regulatory transparency** and to some extent **(b) barriers to competition** .<sup>12</sup> In the category of **Regulatory transparency** , the OECD provides several measures of which many of them are in turn country-wide measures, although re-scheduled under each services sector for which it has relevance. Some of the measures are nonetheless sector-specific, for instance in the case of audio-visuals (whether IPR are effectively enforced) or construction permits (whether they are costly or not). In fact, most policy restrictions under Regulatory transparency are taken form the World Bank’s Doing Business database (see above) but do not necessarily overlap with the three areas as previously discussed, except for one or two indicators measured under the area of “Resolving insolvency”; other measures under Regulatory transparency relate to the areas of “Starting a business” and “Dealing with construction permit”.

In addition, for many sections the Regulatory transparency category also includes two other measures that are close to the ones as measured in the World Bank’s Regulatory Governance data set, which are: (a) whether regulations are published or otherwise communicated to the public prior to entry into force, and (b) whether there is a public comment procedure open to interested persons, including foreign suppliers. Besides, several measures under Regulatory transparency also deal with visas, namely the cost, number of days, and number of procedures it takes to obtain a visa. As such, these latter policy measures coincide with the TFiS concepts that are related to Mode 4 in our conceptual discussion above.

Regarding the category of **Barriers to competition** , the OECD STRI provides a whole list of measures under each services sector but not all of them are of interest for the TFiS framework. Although many of them are non-discriminatory in nature, some of them have a discriminatory component and therefore seem less relevant. The relevant measures vary from whether government can overrule decisions by the regulators, whether decisions of the regulators can be repealed, whether there is a review of the regulation, whether there are fee settings and / or advertising restrictions (although not in health as discussed during the expert meeting but rather in professional services). Some of these policy measures are also addressed by the World Bank’s Regulatory Governance database as previously discussed.

To that end, all the sources mentioned above do attain to this requirement, including the ones that are outlined under the sector-specific sources such as the OECD’s STRI in the majority of the cases.<sup>13</sup> 12 The STRI does not explicitly incorporate trade facilitation as a separate category of measure within the regulatory database or, by extension, the index. Part of the reason is that the rationale of the STRI is, for the most part, to collect data on formal laws and regulations only, as they are what governments typically negotiate in settings like the WTO, or for the purposes of regional trade agreements.

13 Having said that, the category of “barrier to competition” in the STRI contains some discriminatory measures and so would fall outside the scope of any TFiS coverage. For instance, for a typical sector, discriminatory measures in this category are: “When appeal procedures are available in domestic regulatory systems, they are open to affected or interested foreign parties as well”; “Foreign firms have redress when business practices are perceived to restrict competition in a given market”; and “Advertising and marketing: only locally-licensed architects are permitted to advertise and market these services”. For some services, these three measures are comprised of half of the total number of measures included. Measures on regulatory transparency are always non-discriminatory.

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