Светската Трговска Организација и трговијата со логистички услуги

Abstract

Trade in services is important for global economic development as well as for national economic development. National economies benefit from services export. Besides that, trade in services allows consuming high-quality services. Easy and quick access to export markets enables rapid growth and development of services providers. They can start business without large initial investments. Consumption of high – quality services makes export of goods more competitive and each national economy should take into account the development of services sector. When creating trade policy, each country should consider that contribution of services in promoting overall development of national economy can not be completely realized as long as there are barriers and limitation of the free movement of services. Multifarious international relations make interactions between subjects in international trade more complex. Nowadays, each market oriented country protects its national economy, but that in no case should restraint country development and the development of world economy. Trade liberalization is ongoing process of reducing and eventually eliminating all barriers in international trade. This process allows proximate integration of the countries in the world economy and increases their benefits of the international trade. The key to successful liberalization is in harmonization of national trade regulative with commitments that countries undertake in certain regional integration and the commitments imposed by negotiations within the World Trade Organization (WTO). Current round of WTO negotiations is Doha development agenda where trade facilitation has as special attention. Concerning that logistic services are very important for trade facilitation, there is a need of liberalization of these services as part of General agreement on trade in services (GATS). That will reinforce relations between trade in goods and trade in logistic services. Improved performance of one will have a positive impact on the performance of the other. Therefore, it is very important to conduct a research to show that liberalization of trade in logistic services can improve countries’ performance on foreign markets and increase trade in goods. The necessity of liberalization of trade in logistic services which will increase efficiency of logistic operators is very evident, especially in developing countries as Republic of Macedonia. It is one of the ways to improve countries competitiveness. Negotiations for liberalization of trade in logistic services on multilateral level are held within the GATS as part of WTO. These services are part of Doha development agenda. Still, these services are not included as a separate category in the GATS List of services. It can be considered as a limitation to enhance their trade. The results of this research should indicate a necessity to implement logistic services as a separate category in the WTO List of services. That way, WTO members can compile list of concession for certain services and undertake specific commitments for trade in services according their national strategy for economic development. This paper, through extensive analyze of the flows and the policy for trade in logistic services, emphasis its importance for the world and for the national economy. The obtained findings and results, as well as the recommendations that arise from the research, can be used to improve the overall condition of the national economy.