The Report uses a new dataset developed by the WTO that captures the various ways in which services are supplied across borders, providing a new estimate of the total value of services trade.

Major trends affecting trade in services, including demographic changes, digital technologies, rising incomes and climate change, are examined. The Report also looks at how services trade may evolve over the next 20 years and how it may contribute increasingly to inclusive growth and development.

The Report examines how costs for services are declining, largely due to the impact of digital technologies, and how this is expected to expand the share of services in global trade. It concludes that if economies are to reap the benefits of the growing role of services trade, international cooperation will need to intensify.

The publication also includes a number of external contributions in the form of opinion pieces.

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• Full report
• Contents, Acknowledgements, DG foreword, Key facts and findings, Executive summary
• A. Introduction
• B. Services trade in numbers
• C. Why services trade matters
• D. Services trade in the future
• E. What role for international cooperation on services trade policy?
• F. Conclusions
• Bibliography, Technical notes

Opinion pieces

• Alan Beattie: The case of the missing services?
• Sonja Grater, Ali Parry and Wilma Viviers: MSMEs and services trade: A pathway to inclusive growth in developing economies?
• Matteo Fiorini and Bernard Hoekman: Services trade policy and the United Nations, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
• Rupa Chanda: Ensuring inclusive services trade: role of complementary domestic policies
• Richard Baldwin: Digital technology and telemigration
• Natallie Rochester: The potential of trade in services for developing countries
• Jane Drake-Brockman: Why regulatory cooperation matters for business