Services trade policy and sustainable development

The realization of many of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) depends on bolstering the performance of services sectors and improving access to specific services in developing countries. We show that when the level of economic development or the quality of institutions is sufficiently high, openness to services trade and investment is positively related to access to financial, ICT and transport services - three activities that are inputs into several SDGs. An implication is that facilitating trade and investment in services may help realize SDGs that depend on the performance of services sectors. In the absence of comparable cross-country panel data on services trade policies, country-specific analyses are needed to better understand the specific channels through which services trade policies impact on SDGs.