ABSTRACT
In recent years the service sectors have experienced a rapid expansion of their international activities. The share of services exports in relation to total OECD export increased from 17 per cent in 1974 to 26 per cent in 2001, and the share of services FDI (out of the total FDI global stock) amounted to almost 70 per cent in 2005 (Ramasamy and Yeung, 2010). This increasing trend is related both to policy measures aiming to achieve greater service liberalisation and to the rapid expansion and diffusion of information and communication technologies (ICTs), which have partly overcome the problem of non-storability and non-transportability of services, thus enhancing the scope of cross-border trade in services (Hoekman and Primo Braga, 1997; Miozzo and Soete, 2001).
