Services Trade under the WTO

Hildegunn Kyvik Nordås | 31 January 2026
Trade, Research Papers | Tags: Services Trade, Trade Governance, WTO

This article was first published by the Foreign Trade Review.

This article studies the role of the General Agreement on Trade in Services and the Reference Paper (RP) on telecommunications for the digital transformation of services trade, motivated by the special role assigned to telecommunications as the underlying transport means of all services. Using structural gravity applying recommended best practice (Poisson pseudo–maximum likelihood, three-way fixed effects and internal trade), it finds that having scheduled the RP is associated with a boost in services trade and a shift over time towards digitally deliverable services. However, it does not find evidence that the RP and underlying domestic regulation have shifted trade from commercial presence towards cross-border trade.

Technical Standards in Services and Trade Governance

Hildegunn Kyvik Nordås | 8 May 2024
Trade, Blog | Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, International Standards, Services Trade, Trade Governance
Standards can potentially resolve the trade-off between regulatory certainty and space for innovation, provided they are recognized and accepted by law enforcement bodies. ... continue reading

Why a Deal in the WTO Negotiations on E-Commerce is a “Must-Have” for MC13

Hildegunn Kyvik Nordås and Jane Drake-Brockman | 13 February 2024
Trade, Blog | Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, WTO
The internet is fundamentally dependent on openness to cross-border data flows. But many governments are regulating to constrain international data transfers - including under a banner of data sovereignty.... continue reading

The Case for International Digital Standards for Interoperability of Trade in Digital Services

Jane Drake-Brockman, Manjeet Kripalani, Hildegunn Kyvik Nordås, Hosuk Lee-Makiyama and Badri Narayanan Gopalakrishnan | 4 August 2023
Trade, Policy Briefs | Tags: Data Governance, Digital Economy, International Standards, Services Trade
Divergences in standards add compliance costs and limit the ability of businesses, especially micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, to connect across borders and reap the benefits from scale and access... continue reading

Services in the India-EU Free Trade Agreement

Hildegunn Kyvik Nordås | 18 April 2023
Trade, Policy Briefs | Tags: EU, India, Services Trade, Telecommunications, Trade Agreements
EU and India are both committed to the global trading system, and both are concerned with making the digital and green transition work for all.... continue reading

The Digital Transition of Services: Getting Regulation Right From the Start

Hildegunn Kyvik Nordås | 9 March 2023
Trade, Blog | Tags: Competition, Digital Economy, Innovation, Privacy, Services Trade
The digital transition and the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) in services are blurring the boundaries of both occupations and sectors. At the same time, new or rekindled trade-offs between... continue reading

Hildegunn Kyvik Nordås

Hildegunn Kyvik Nordås is a Senior Associate with CEP. She also holds a position as visiting professor at Örebro University in Sweden and research professor at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) in Norway. Prior to that she was leading the OECD’s work on services trade policy analysis, developing the Services Trade Restrictiveness Indices and database and related analytical activities (2005-2019). She also spent two years at the research department at the WTO (2002-2004)