THE APEC INDEX FOR MEASURING THE REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT FOR SERVICES TRADE IN THE APEC REGION: SUMMARY FINDINGS FOR ADDITIONAL APEC ECONOMIES
The APEC Index for measuring the regulatory environment for services trade in the APEC region comprises regulatory information on trade barriers affecting services and composite indices that quantify this information in a comparable manner. Building on the OECD Services Trade Restrictiveness Index, it also takes into account regional initiatives and APEC specific elements, such as the APEC Business Travel Card, to reflect relevant APEC-wide efforts to liberalise services trade. The pilot phase of the APEC Index, led by Korea, covered four services sectors (computer services, telecommunication services, distribution services and logistics storage and warehousing services) in four economies (Chile, Peru, Chinese Taipei, and Viet Nam). The APEC Group on Services (GOS) endorsed the pilot phase for the APEC Index in September 2020. With the completion of the pilot phase, APEC GOS members agreed to work towards expanding the coverage to all APEC economies and all 22 services sectors covered in the OECD STRI, following the approach and methodology developed in the pilot phase. Under the leadership of Canada, the GOS Technical Group on measuring the regulatory environment for services in the APEC region met in March and August 2022 to develop a work plan and implement the expansion. Building on the OECD STRI which covers majority of APEC economies for all sectors, the expansion of the APEC Index could be expedited for these economies, and received the endorsement of the APEC GOS in August 2022. Work in the Technical Group continues to cover the remaining APEC economies. This note provides a summary of the key findings for additional economies covered in the APEC Index. The Annex provides further information on the methodological steps carried out to increase the representativeness of APEC in the weighting, following the approach adopted in the pilot phase. Trade restrictiveness varies considerably across economies and sectors The regulatory environment affecting services sectors varies considerably among economies and sectors in the APEC region. Figure 1 shows the average, minimum and maximum values of the APEC Index for each of the 22 services sectors across the economies covered. Bearing in mind that restrictiveness across services sectors should be compared cautiously, on average, air transport, rail freight transport services, and broadcasting services tend to be more restrictive than other services sectors in APEC. These services are among the most restrictive on a global scale, not only in the APEC region.1 At the same time, the sectors with lowest average levels of restrictiveness are sound recording services, logistics freight forwarding services, and road freight transport services. However, except in logistics
1
OECD STRI: Policy Trends up to 2022, February 2022, available here.