ABSTRACT

The ‘service sector provides the basis for a global economy by making possible the timely distribution of goods to an increasing variety of markets both within domestic economies and concurrently in transnational markets’ (Riddle, 1986: 25). Especially important in this role are infrastructure services and trade services. This has been true historically as well as more recently as the globalisation of services moves higher up on the agenda of international trade organisations, development agencies, and becomes a key part of the strategic expansion of some service-producing industries. The ‘distribution of services’ in their own right is now very much part of the global economy. More services have become tradable as a result of the opportunities created by the recent advances in ICT (see Chapter 7) and the removal of some of the restrictions on the cross-border mobility of the workers who produce and supply services. It is also the case that a growing share of international trade in services is a function of their embodiment in material goods or substances.