Business | Sports | Translation

French Connection s01e02 | To Serve and Export

Jérôme Osselaer24 June 2014

France was the 10th market for U.S. trade in services with $18.5bn in 2012, which represented 60% of the trade in goods during the same period.

While several initiatives should further improve market access in the EU, such as a potential TTIP, the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), and the new Services Trade Restrictiveness Index (STRI) recently launched by OECD, companies of all sizes should benefit from major opportunities in an increasingly interconnected world.

Trade in services

4 categories accounted for nearly 90% of U.S. service exports to France:

 - travel and tourism,

 - business, professional and technical services,

 - royalties and license fees,

 - financial services.

New initiatives

Several initiatives should unlock remaining trade barriers. In addition to the TTIP, which I already covered in the previous episode of this series, the STRI helps identify which domestic regulations restrict trade. France already has a below average score in most industries, but has room for improvement in the motion pictures and sound recording sectors.

Besides, the TiSA is being negotiated among 23 WTO members that account for nearly two-thirds of global services trade: Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the EU, Hong Kong, Iceland, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Liechtenstein, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States.

Launched in 2013 outside the WTO, the TiSA objective is to open up markets for services and develop new rules on trade in services. A future agreement should be compatible with the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), in order to attract broader participation and be easily integrated into the WTO system.

According to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, "the basic framework of the agreement is in place, initial market access offers have been exchanged, and sector-specific work in areas like telecommunications and financial services is in full swing." 

New opportunities

In a world where multinationals, SMEs and even individuals, can easily offer their services across borders, there are massive opportunities to seize in a global market driven by digital growth, knowledge-intensive services and international connectedness.

In that regard, the language industry is obviously a relevant sector, as translators create value by facilitating cross-border flows.

Over to You

How do you or your company plan to profit from these opportunities?

Let me know in the comments below!

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Click to tweet: French travellers spent a record $5.9bn in the US in 2013  #FCs01 #IntlTrade #xl8 #t9n