International Trade in Services: Principles, Policies, Industries

Author: Chen Xiancheng Da Zhong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-07-01
Features: This book is a product of delay. Nevertheless, we strive to explore the research findings of predecessors and elaborate the theoretical perspectives of contemporaries. These contents are the main sources for the structure and writing of this book. Of course, whether the convergence of all these and our limited views here can be compatible and produce a "synergy effect" remains to be judged; the tentative structural arrangement from the "Principles Part" to the "Policy Part" and then to the "Industry Part" also needs further discussion. The objective reality of the development of international trade in services cannot tolerate the existence and continuation of a "vacuum" in theoretical research and teaching. Filling this vacuum is precisely the decomposition of the research object and the expansion of the research boundaries in international trade research. The research scope of traditional trade theory is limited to commodity trade, where services are either attached as "foreign bodies" or simply equated with commodity trade. As a result, the principles and models related to commodity trade are "logically" applicable to trade in services, and the policies and rules related to commodity trade are "naturally" regulating trade in services. This simplification in theoretical treatment has led to a detachment of theory from practice.