Let Workers Move Using Bilateral Labor Agreements to Increase Trade in Services

The temporary movement of labor is one mode of delivering services across borders. Unlike the movement of capital, and despite significant returns to mobility, labor movement remains highly restricted and politically sensitive. To circumvent this problem, the use of bilateral labor agreements (BLAs) may serve as a potential complementary means of increasing temporary labor mobility, particularly among workers in the services sector. BLAs are generally not part of trade agreements, nor are they designed to promote services exports by the sending country, although they could be used to do so. Let Workers Move: Using Bilateral Labor Agreements to Increase Trade in Services assesses what has been achieved so far in trade agreements in terms of the temporary movement of services providers and explores how BLAs might allow countries—especially developing countries—to focus on the temporary movement of very specific categories of workers, such as computer programmers or electricians within the construction sector. It also reviews case studies from Europe, North America, the Caribbean, and the Pacific to examine the viability and performance of BLAs as a complement to other efforts to liberalize the temporary movement of people. This book will be useful to policymakers interested in expanding opportunities for services trade, academics in developing countries interested in trade as a development tool, and experts involved in trade negotiations. The questions raised in Let Workers Move will motivate new research and guide the analysis of economic policy on services trade in terms of its interaction with the temporary movement of people.