Tradeflow Study - UNDP Black Sea Trade and Investment Promotion ...

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Other commercial services (which exclude construction, personal/cultural, financial,
insurance, royalties and computer services) have a large potential for the region and account
for around one tenth of the potential for exporting to the region. Exports of other commercial
services have outperformed world trade growth for Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria,
Romania, Russia and Ukraine. Moreover, import demand has been very dynamic in Albania,
Armenia, Bulgaria, Greece, and Romania. All WTO members of BSEC have liberalised other
business services for mode 2 channel of supply and most of the subsectors of mode 3 supply
(except for Turkey). Moreover, with the exception of Greece and Turkey most of the
subsectors have been liberalised in mode 1 channel of supply. Most countries have unbound
restrictions for mode 4 supply. For National Treatment, except for the case of Turkey (in
modes 1-3) and Greece (in mode 1), few restrictions exist in modes 1-3. Albania, Romania
and Turkey have few restrictions in mode 4, while Armenia, Georgia and Greece have
unbound limitations for mode 4. Overall, it appears that other business services presents a
high intra-regional trade potential since the sector is extremely dynamic in the region and
restrictions are relatively limited for Market Access and National Treatment.
Other significant trade potential exists for computer and information services. Computer
and information services have been performing far better than world trends for all countries in
the region for both imports and exports (except for Russia for imports). Moreover most
countries have no limitations on Market Access or National Treatment for communication
services, except in mode 4. Distribution services have few restrictions on Market Access
and National Treatment in modes 1-3 and thus indicate an important channel for cross-border
trade in these modes of supply (mode 4 remains unbound for Armenia, Georgia and Greece,
and partly unbound for Romania and Turkey).
Opportunities for intra-regional trade promotion are more limited for financial and insurance
services owing to the severe restrictions existing in most countries of the BSEC region,
despite significant growth, particularly for insurance services where imports have outstripped
world growth for 70% of the countries in the region. Construction services are also
restricted and thus make it more difficult to promote intra-regional trade.
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