Table 1 highlights the most relevant horizontal or cross-sectoral services trade restrictions identified across the STRI country sample, as well as relevant barriers in the three most restrictive sectors on average: air transport, legal services, and accounting and auditing services. Cross-sectoral barriers affect all services sectors, and include for instance limitations on the movement of contractual services suppliers, acquisition and use of land and real estate, screening requirements for foreign investment, limitations on access to public procurement markets, and local presence requirements.
OECD Services Trade Restrictiveness Index
Policy Trends up to 2024
Most and least restrictive service sectors in 2023
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Distribution, sound recording, and motion picture services were the most open service sectors in 2023 (Figure 2). |
Air transport, legal, and accounting and auditing services were the most restrictive sectors on average. |
Figure 2. STRI average, minimum and maximum values by sector, 2023
Note: The STRI takes values between zero and one, one being the most restrictive. The STRI database records measures on a most favoured nation (MFN) basis towards third countries. Preferential trade agreements are not taken into account. Air transport and road freight cover only commercial establishment (with accompanying movement of people).
Source: OECD STRI database (http://oe.cd/stri-db).
Table 1. Top 5 most relevant cross-sectoral barriers and sector-specific restrictions in air transport, legal services, and accounting services
Note: The count for “memo” type of measures, which are not scored in the STRI, indicates the number of positive answers recorded for that measure across the 50 countries covered. The topmost relevant measures are selected on the basis of the following criteria: (1) most restricted cross-sectoral measures (i.e. same answer across sectors), (2) most restricted sector-specific measures, (3) key measures, or (4) memos affecting the score of other measures through hierarchy rules.
Source: OECD STRI database (2023).
In air transport, common impediments include screening foreign investment in aviation and residency requirements for at least one of the airlines’ board members. An important barrier in air transport relates to limitation on foreign equity. Over 40 countries in the sample restrict foreign equity participation in both domestic and international air transport services to less than 50%. In addition, forbidding the commercial exchange of take-off and landing slots as well as public ownership of airlines are identified as common policies.
In legal and accounting services, licensing requirements for lawyers practicing domestic law and auditors are often coupled with rules that limit foreign practitioners’ access to the profession, such as requirements to pass a local examination to obtain a license. Moreover, most countries restrict the ownership of law firms to locally qualified lawyers, particularly within domestic law. Directors and managers of law firms and audit firms are also often required to be locally qualified.