外文翻译---浅析邮政服务与快递服务的异同.doc

SERVICES: THE CASE OF POSTAL VERSUS EXPRESS DELIVERY SERVICES Michael G. Plummer 1 Introduction In developed countries, services continue to constitute by far the largest share of national economies. For example, in the EU and the United States, approximately seventy and eighty percent, respectively, of the economy falls under the general rubric of services. Services have also increased in importance in trade: in the year 2000, the share of services in total exports came to approximately 28 percent in the United States and 22 percent in the EU, with an average for the entire OECD coming to about 19 percent. The same trend is observable in developing countries. During the development process, it is typical that: (1) agriculture falls as a percentage of GDP; (2) manufacturing first rises and then falls as the economy matures; but (3) services continue to grow throughout the development process. As a percentage of trade, services exports of developing countries have risen from nine percent in 1980 (approximately half the share of developed countries) to about eighteen percent in 2000, on a par with that of the developed countries. Given the complicated and diverse nature of trade in services, liberalization at the global level can be more delicate and in many ways more difficult than trade in goods. Services can be high tech or low tech; inputs and/or final products; privately-provided or publicly-provided; and closely related to other areas, such as foreign direct investment (“FDI”). Many services areas, however, still include government involvement, and state prerogatives in certain areas are recognized by the GATS. Moreover, trade in goods tends to be separate from FDI, though clearly there exist indirect links between trade and FDI. In the area of services, however, trade in services can be intricately linked to FDI; in some sectors, trade in services is impossible without FDI. In this chapter, we will focus on the need for services liberalization in the global e