ABSTRACT
The mercantilist instinct of the developed countries is to want services in the general agreement on tariffs and trade system while the same instinct propels developing countries' efforts to keep it out. Perhaps the most important finding Rolf J. Langhammer's work provides is that the presumption - that the developing countries deal less in world trade in services than in merchandise - is not true. Japan is the only exception 38% of Japanese services imports as compared with 51% of merchandise imports come from developing countries. As is generally accepted in the case for merchandise, different service activities may have entirely different bases of comparative advantage. Services trade between developed and developing countries, as Langhammer's results show, displays much the same pattern as merchandise trade. As with merchandise trade, some types of services tend to flow South-North, others North-South.
