Trade Facilitation in Services

Trade Facilitation in Services (TFS) involves developing strategies and measures to promote and enhance the services sector, which is distinct from goods exports. The objective is to reduce costs associated with services trade, thereby increasing productivity at the economy-wide level.

Key aspects of TFS include: 

  • Transparency
  • Regulatory practices
  • Regulatory cooperation
  • Regulatory coherence
  • Good regulatory practices
These measures aim to minimize unnecessary costs for service suppliers, such as negotiating visa requirements to reduce burdens. TFS also focuses on:
  • Effective market access
  • Predictability
  • Certainty for service providers
This means streamlining domestic regulatory procedures and ensuring clarity and consistency in regulations when entering the market. Unclear and opaque regulatory policies increase the cost of market entry and operations for both domestic and foreign service suppliers. In Nigeria, TFS goes beyond transparency alone and emphasizes “meaningful transparency.”
It involves:
  • Providing clear rules and procedures for trade in services
  • Simplifying the institutional setup
This helps avoid ambiguity and allows service providers to have a say in the development of rules and procedures. To achieve effective transparency and market access, the AfCFTA suggested these two approaches:
  • Actively explaining rules and procedures to service providers to provide meaningful clarity
  • Involving service sector operators in the development of rules and procedures to enable their influence on policies
Additionally, it is essential to work towards limiting regulators’ interference in the regulatory process. This will ensure that regulatory bodies maintain institutional quality and are accountable for their actions. Regulators should be independent from external political influences and possess the necessary expertise, skills, and resources to effectively facilitate trade in services.
 
Overall, the Trade Facilitation in Services (TFS) framework for Nigeria focuses on improving regulatory processes and procedures. The goal is to minimize the costs associated with obtaining information and implementing regulatory policies. By doing so, the aim is to deliver meaningful outcomes that benefit you as exporters, enabling you to navigate the market more efficiently and effectively.