Trade in Services: Protection Levels and Performance. Creating a New Taxonomy of Industries on the Basis of Barriers to Trade in Services

The services sector not only is the largest and most important sector in developed economies, but in producing intermediate inputs for many sectors it influences the productivity, competitiveness and performance of large parts of the economy. Trade liberalisation and deregulation in the service sector is seen as one of the most important driving forces for the efficiency and productivity performance of the sector as well as the economy as a whole.