ABSTRACT
The importance of services in the economy of the European Union (EU) has increased dramatically. Trade in services has increased both intra-EU trade and trade of the EU with the rest of the world. The chapter considers the EU regime. This is of particular relevance because the EU has played a crucial role in the process of both internal and external liberalisation of trade in services. The specific patterns of trade in services describes with the help of statistical series, detailing the structure by area and by branch of activity. As trade in services is much less well documented than trade in goods, the description is much less complete with regard to the length of the time series, the detail of products and the coverage of geographical areas. The integration of service markets can be considered complete in cases where there are no obstacles to cross-border trade.
