Despite the complex ways in which services are traded and regulated, services trade is increasingly visible in trade statistics and analytical frameworks that capture its multiple dimensions (Box 4). The STRI, combined with trade statistics and related analytical work, provides robust evidence of the economic effects of services trade policy, supporting the design of fit-for-purpose regulatory regimes.
OECD Services Trade Restrictiveness Index 2026
Policy Trends
Policy restrictions to services trade, non-tariff barriers in nature, impose costs equivalent to very high ad valorem duties, often exceeding those applied to goods. Eliminating these barriers could generate substantial economic gains, warranting greater visibility in policy discussions.
OECD estimates indicate that comprehensive reforms addressing both economy-wide and sector-specific barriers could reduce annual global trade costs by approximately USD 1.6 trillion, according to new calculations based on the methodology in OECD (2024[15]). This equates to nearly 1.4% of global GDP or 18.6% of global services trade value in 20241, with notable benefits in some professional services, financial services, transport, and communications.
The most significant trade cost reductions could be achieved in financial services, where services trade policy reforms that would reduce countries’ STRIs halfway towards the best performer are estimated to lower trade costs by 29% in commercial banking and 16% in insurance (Figure 14). Air transport could also see significant trade cost benefits (17% reduction). Overall, the highest trade cost savings would accrue in emerging-market economies, but developed economies also stand to benefit from lowering services trade barriers. Box 2 above illustrates the trade cost effects of India’s 2025 reform in insurance services.
Trade cost implications of policy reforms in the STRI by sector, 2025 (% of export values)
Note: The figure presents the trade cost implications by sector of closing 50% of the gap to the best performing countries. The following sectors were not covered in the estimations due to lack of data: broadcasting, construction, distribution, motion pictures, and sound recording services. The 90% confidence intervals are computed using the standard errors of the trade elasticity estimated from a gravity model.
Source: Calculations based on methodology in Benz and Jaax (2020[7]).
Services trade reforms yield economy‑wide benefits that extend far beyond improving conditions for services suppliers. By lowering regulatory barriers in key service sectors, reforms enhance the efficiency and competitiveness of manufacturing industries that rely on services as essential inputs.
Lower services trade costs enhance manufacturing firms’ access to essential intermediate inputs such as telecommunications, transport, logistics, and financial services. This access fosters productivity improvements across manufacturing sectors. OECD analysis suggests that sector-specific reforms could yield significant labour productivity gains – for example, up to 26% from ambitious reforms targeting trade in air transport, 21% in financial services, and 12% in telecommunications (OECD, 2024[15]).
Moreover, recent OECD analysis shows that ambitious, yet feasible, reforms that remove regulatory barriers on imported services inputs are estimated to lower carbon dioxide (CO₂) emission intensity by an average of 1.5% across downstream manufacturing sectors (Beverelli et al., 2025[16]). These reductions are economically meaningful, given that the average decline in CO₂ intensity across sectors during 2014‑18 was 7% in the 49 countries analysed. The impact is particularly pronounced in high-emission manufacturing sectors and in lower-income countries, underscoring the potential role of services trade policy in promoting convergence toward higher environmental performance across economies and sectors.
On 10‑11 December 2025, the OECD Services Trade Workshop convened 288 delegates from governments, international organisations, academia, and business to discuss services trade competitiveness and barriers. Sponsored by Canada, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, the workshop fostered collaboration on data, measurement, and research methods to enhance services competitiveness and support fit-for-purpose services trade policy design.
Participants agreed on the need for improved, comparable data and analytical tools to better understand and address services trade barriers. The recent expansions of the OECD STRI regulatory database to new economies in Africa, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific through collaboration with key regional organisations, the joint World Bank and WTO initiative on Trade in Services for Development (TS4D), and continued investment in a policy-relevant agenda on services trade across research communities in academia, international organisations, and government agencies represent significant steps in the right direction.
The event reinforced the importance of evidence-based approaches and international collaboration to tackle emerging challenges in services trade. It also underscored that sustained investment by governments and international organisations is essential to close measurement gaps and make services trade research more attractive to academia. A recurring theme was the need to explore and test new micro-level data and tools—ranging from firm-level datasets to newer, unconventional sources enabled by the rapid expansion in granular data over the last decade. Participants noted that real progress will also require a creative approach to linking these sources to services trade concepts and questions.
Discussions also stressed that “more data” will not be enough on its own. Participants called for stronger qualitative analysis to understand how services are traded in practice: how firms organise delivery across modes, how regulatory frictions play out on the ground, and how digitalisation is reshaping business models and trade patterns. Strengthening this qualitative layer was seen as key to interpreting quantitative results and translating them into policy-relevant insights.
Finally, the workshop confirmed the view that a supply-chain lens is essential for analysing services trade. This involves treating services not only as final exports, but also as critical inputs embodied along value chains, including through commercial presence, and recognising the role of intangibles and bundled goods-and-services offerings. This strengthens the case for analysis that traces upstream and downstream channels and links policy settings to firm- and value chain-level outcomes.
← 1. Global GDP was USD 110.98 trillion in 2024. See World Bank and OECD national accounts data: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD. Moreover, global services trade reached USD 8.69 trillion in 2024. See WTO (2025[17]).