Examples are given to illustrate the opportunities and challenges brought by the opening of the service industry to the outside world to the development of China's service trade.

The opportunities and challenges brought by the service industry's opening to the outside world to the development of China's service trade have become a reality. According to relevant data, the rapid growth of international trade in services has exceeded the development of trade in goods. Since the signing of the General Agreement on Trade in Services in 1990s, especially 1994, the development momentum of trade in services has been even stronger. 197 The total service trade increased by 7. 1% over the previous year, reaching 1.35 trillion US dollars, accounting for 20.2% of the total global trade. Service trade has broken the situation that goods trade has dominated the world in the field of international trade for many years, and has increasingly become an indispensable part of international trade. More importantly, with the increasing socialization of knowledge and the deepening of social division of labor, the acceleration of economic globalization makes service trade not only increasingly important, but also a trend of international trade development, and will soon become the mainstream. According to the prediction of international organizations such as the World Bank, the proportion of world service trade in global goods trade will reach 50% in 20 10, which is close to 5 trillion US dollars. After China's entry into WTO, China's service trade market is bound to expand and open under the impetus of external pressure and internal power.

I. Rapid development of international trade in services

The fundamental reason for the rapid development of international service trade is that it represents the development trend of the world today. The first is the trend of economic service. The so-called economic service, from a macro perspective, means that the service industry has become the main industrial sector of the national economy; Microscopically, it refers to the increase in the proportion of service input or software input in the process of industrial and agricultural production. Since 1970s, the service industry has accounted for 60% of the GDP of high-income countries in the world. The developed countries in Europe and America, led by the United States, have completed the industrialization process and entered the post-industrialization era, that is, the service industry has replaced industry as the focus of industrial structure, and the development level of a country's service industry has become the symbol of its economic development level. Secondly, the trend of knowledge-based economy, that is, the advent of the era of knowledge economy. Knowledge economy has comprehensive characteristics and is a mixed economy of manufacturing and service industries. The inevitable result of the development of knowledge economy is the transformation of knowledge products from material products to spiritual products, and the proportion of intangible spiritual consumption will also increase day by day in people's consumption. This means that in the era of knowledge economy, the importance of service industry development will be further enhanced and the service industry will also achieve greater development. The third is the trend of economic globalization. In today's world, the mobility of production factors such as labor and capital has been further strengthened, which has promoted the rapid development of international trade, international finance and international investment, and further promoted the formation of the trend of world economic integration. The trend of economic integration in turn further promotes the development of international trade. Under the development trend of economic service, the proportion of service industry has increased, and the proportion of service trade in international trade has become inevitable.

In addition, the establishment of the World Trade Organization and the signing of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) have strengthened the trend of liberalization of trade in services. 1 99565438+1October1,the World Trade Organization (WTO) was formally established and operated. The multilateral trading system established by WTO, including trade in services, provides organizational and institutional guarantee for the normal operation of the General Agreement on Trade in Services and greatly promotes the liberalization of international trade in services. Under the WTO system, participants in any service trade agreement should open their domestic market to another signatory who provides services, and the service market of WTO members must be open to competition. From 65438 to 0997, after arduous negotiations, WTO members finally reached the Global Basic Telecommunication Agreement, the Information Technology Agreement and the Financial Services Trade Agreement. The conclusion of these agreements in the field of international service trade will further accelerate the process of global service trade liberalization.

Second, the development and opening up of China's service trade.

The present situation of China's service trade development is not optimistic, which is manifested in the following aspects.

First, the overall development level is backward. First of all, the growth rate of service trade is extremely disproportionate to the growth rate of goods trade. According to the statistics of relevant departments, in 1994, China's trade export 12 1 billion dollars, ranking 1 1 in the world, while the service export in the same period was only 9.2 billion dollars, ranking 22nd. The gap between trade in services and trade in goods is far from synchronized. Secondly, the development level of China's service trade is not compatible with the growth rate of the national economy. At the constant price of 1987 USD, the GDP of China increased from 2.3% in 1990 to 3.2% in 1994. However, from 65438 to 0994, China's service trade exports only accounted for 1% of the world's total service trade, and there was a big gap between them. From the perspective of foreign trade structure, in 1985, the service trade of the world's major industrial countries accounts for 49.7% in Britain, 40. 1% in the United States, 37.9% in France, 20.65% in former West Germany and 20.6% in Japan, while China is only in 1988.

Second, the structure of service trade is unreasonable and cannot adapt to the current world development trend. China's service exports are mainly labor-intensive services such as tourism, labor export and ocean transportation, and these trade modes are also more competitive internationally. At present, the mainstream of international service trade development is technology-intensive, knowledge-intensive and capital-intensive service projects such as finance, insurance, consulting, post and telecommunications and professional services. In this kind of service project, China is in a backward state and lacks international competitiveness.

Third, from the perspective of the breadth of the service trade market, there are about 150 service items in the world, while there are only over 40 in China. There are still many service projects that are blank in China and need to be developed.

Since the reform and opening up, China's service trade market has gradually opened up and begun to take shape. From the analysis of the four trade modes stipulated in the General Agreement on Trade in Services, there are mainly the following modes.

1. Cross-border delivery method. China only promised to open this delivery mode in the value-added telecommunications industry. China post and telecommunications enterprises began to use foreign capital from 1982. So far, Alcatel and NEC have met 53% of the demand for communication equipment in China.

2. Foreign consumption. With the increase of overseas business trips, negotiations, study abroad and tourism activities of domestic citizens and legal persons in recent years, the number of China consumers receiving foreign services abroad is on the rise. Except for special circumstances, our government has no big restrictions on this.

3. Commercial presence. This is the main form of China's service trade opening. Since 1980s, foreign investors have started to invest in China's service industries (mainly tourist hotels, restaurants, financial leasing, banks, etc.). In the 1990s, many long-closed "forbidden zones" began to thaw, and the departments that allowed foreign enterprises to enter China's service market in the existing way continued to expand, including commercial retail, tourism, finance, insurance, shipping, real estate, import and export commodity inspection, international freight forwarding, waterway and highway transportation, shipping, medical care, accounting, information consulting and so on. In the field of commercial retailing, the state allows commercial retailing to conduct a pilot project of introducing foreign capital, and allows foreign investors to invest and set up wholly-owned, joint-venture and cooperative production and processing enterprises in China to sell their products in the China market, or entrust domestic sales agencies to sell their products on a commission basis according to the sales ratio approved in the contract. It is allowed to set up two Sino-foreign joint ventures and cooperative commercial retail enterprises in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Dalian, Qingdao, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou, Xiamen, Hainan 1 provinces and cities. It is allowed to set up two Sino-foreign joint ventures and cooperative chain enterprises in Beijing and Shanghai respectively. Allow foreign companies to attract domestic retail enterprises in China to carry out sales activities as franchise stores. In terms of tourism, the state allows foreign investors to invest in the construction of tourist areas and set up travel agencies, foreign exchange shops and rental companies in tourist attractions. In terms of financial insurance, foreign banks have been stationed in Shanghai 199 1 since March. In the professional service market, three overseas law firms are allowed to set up offices in Shanghai, from 65438 to 0993. In the real estate market, foreign investors invested in land development, from the coast to the mainland, and began to enter the real estate industry. In terms of utilizing foreign capital to develop oil, after 1993 opened the Yellow Sea, Bohai Sea and South China Sea, China opened the East China Sea for oil development, thus opening up the entire coastline. China's service trade market is open to the outside world, forming a pattern covering more than ten departments such as finance, insurance, transportation, warehousing, construction, real estate, health and information consultation.

4. Natural persons move. China has not restricted foreign labor services by law, but since the founding of the People's Republic of China, only foreign experts have been allowed to work in China. In recent years, with the rapid development of economy and the improvement of opening to the outside world, the number of foreign service providers entering the China market in the form of natural persons has increased rapidly.

With the liberalization of international service trade, the opening of other service fields in China is inevitable, which puts forward higher requirements for the opening of China's service trade.

Third, the opening of China's service trade market.

As a developing country with backward service industry, the development speed and opening-up process of China's service industry and service trade in recent ten years are relatively fast and effective. However, the overall development level of China's service trade is still backward, and there is still a big gap compared with developed countries and even some developing countries. The development level of service industry in western developed countries and some newly industrialized countries is much higher than that in China. The opening of the market and the entry of powerful foreign service enterprises into China's service market will not only bring advanced technology and management experience, but also have a great impact on China's service market, thus bringing a series of problems and challenges.

1. Further opening up China's service trade market may bring a series of shocks.

First of all, due to the huge gap between the development level of China's service industry and the international advanced service industry, further opening up China's service trade market will have a huge impact on the domestic service industry, leading to a series of consequences that are not conducive to the development of China's service industry, which are embodied in the following aspects: First, the development of infant industries is struggling. Many areas of China's service industry, especially the emerging service industry, are still in the initial stage of development. These emerging service industries are often the strengths of developed countries. After the opening of the market, foreign services and service providers must enter and occupy the markets in these fields, thus making the living space of these infant industries in China smaller and smaller, making it more and more difficult to develop. Second, the competitive environment of traditional service enterprises may deteriorate, leading to a high elimination rate. The super-national treatment given to foreign-funded enterprises after opening up will make the state-owned enterprises, which are already in the predicament of restructuring, worse. Thirdly, the entry of foreign-funded service enterprises may also lead to the loss of the already scarce service talents in China. After foreign advanced service enterprises enter the domestic market, it is bound to attract a large number of domestic talents to join, which will rob domestic enterprises of their talent resources to some extent, which is not conducive to the long-term development of domestic enterprises.

Secondly, it may have a negative impact on China's balance of payments structure. After the further opening of China's service trade market, both service exports and imports will increase. However, due to the backwardness of China's service industry, the growth of imports may be higher than that of exports, which will lead to the increase of China's service trade deficit, thus affecting China's balance of payments. If it is serious, it may lead to the imbalance of foreign exchange payments and worsen the financial situation of China.

Finally, the further opening of the service trade market may damage China's economic sovereignty.

2. China lacks a sound and effective service trade management system to regulate and manage the further opened service trade market and make it orderly.

At present, MOFTEC is mainly responsible for the management and comprehensive coordination of China's foreign service trade. Its main functions are: to participate in international multilateral negotiations, to manage China's introduction of foreign capital, foreign project contracting and labor cooperation, and to approve foreign investment of some service enterprises in China. This management model has promoted the development of China's service trade, but it can't meet the requirements of the current service industry development, and it can't undertake the important task of planning and managing China's service trade market after further opening up, so as to make it develop in a healthy and orderly direction. The limitations of the existing management system are mainly manifested in the following aspects: decentralized management functions have led to a chaotic situation in which the government is divided into several branches. There is no unified macro-management department and coordination department to promote the development of service trade in China, which leads to the unsatisfactory management system and unclear management responsibilities, and the phenomenon of multi-head and cross-management occurs from time to time. On the one hand, management is confused, including areas with overlapping functions, and it is difficult to exercise their functions and powers, and there is an unmanned middle area. On the other hand, it is easy to form departmental protectionism, resulting in industry monopoly, which is not conducive to the development of market system, the improvement of international competitiveness and the development of service trade.

3. Relevant legislation needs to be strengthened.

In recent years, China has promulgated some important laws and regulations in the field of service trade, such as commercial banking law, insurance law, maritime law, advertising law and civil aviation law. However, compared with the extensive connotation of service trade and the requirements of gradual opening up, the legislative status quo is far from enough, and there are many shortcomings, mainly manifested in the following aspects: First, the number of legislation related to service industry is small, there is no system, and many fields are not even basic. Secondly, the existing legislation has some defects and problems in guiding principles, legislative spirit, content and skills, which are different from or even contrary to international norms. The contents of laws and regulations are outdated, and the provisions lack operability, which needs to be improved. Third, the legislative level is low and the conflict between laws and regulations is serious. Most of the existing laws and regulations are rules and normative documents of functional departments, and there are gaps and contradictions between them, which seriously affect the authority and execution of laws. The backwardness of service industry legislation makes the development of domestic service market lack of legal protection, and also makes the service export friction difficult to solve.

Fourth, the countermeasure analysis

First of all, we should vigorously develop China's service industry, strive to shorten the gap with developed countries in the shortest time, and seize the initiative in service trade. The following measures can be taken: 1. Attach great importance to the development and trade of the service industry, strengthen the policy research and formulation of the tertiary industry, and gradually develop various departments of the service industry. 2. In view of the weak status quo of China's service industry legislation, vigorously carry out service industry legislation. In order to enhance the transparency of service industry management, it is best to formulate a general law on service industry as soon as possible, so as to unify and coordinate the laws and regulations of various service departments. 3. Accelerate the construction of modern enterprise system in service industry and encourage service enterprises to unite. Promote the shareholding system reform, reorganization and collectivization of service enterprises. Enhance their own competitiveness and self-development ability. 4. Accelerate the training of service personnel, optimize service quality, and cultivate and retain talents. 5. Reform the macro-management system of service industry, change administrative intervention into financial policy, monetary policy and other economic means, and propose to gradually establish non-governmental trade associations in accordance with international practice to unify and coordinate the development of China's service industry and change the current fragmented situation of China's service industry.

Secondly, establish and improve the management system of China's international service trade, implement effective macro-management, unify policies, and coordinate with foreign countries to ensure the smooth development of China's service trade. 1. Determine the centralized management and comprehensive coordination department of import and export policy of service industry. According to the provisions of China's foreign trade law, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation is the centralized management and comprehensive coordination department of international trade services authorized by the State Council. Its management scope should be defined as planning and developing strategies for service industries with many industries and all categories, formulating or participating in the formulation of laws and regulations on service trade, coordinating relations with other countries, and implementing the relevant provisions of the General Agreement on Trade in Services. 2. Establish a macro-management and coordination mechanism for China's international service trade, straighten out the relationship between the central and local governments and departments, and make the responsibilities of management departments at all levels clear and the division of labor clear. The management departments of service-related industries mainly focus on: counting and mastering the basic data of domestic service trade volume and the market situation of service trade; The duties of MOFTEC are: to supervise and manage the open service trade market according to the relevant laws and regulations of China and international agreements, to put forward the industry plan of tariff concession and tariff protection, to promote the development of domestic related industries, and to push the advantageous industries to the international market.

Third, according to the relevant provisions of GATS, adjust the relevant policies of China's service trade.

1. Adjust some original protection policies in China. For example, according to the requirements of GATS, the financial market should be open to foreign investment in currency lending, various bills and securities transactions. 2. Under the principle of national treatment, China's service market shall not have any "discriminatory" treatment to foreign services and service providers. Therefore, China must formulate policies to support and encourage the development of service industry, so as to improve the competitiveness of service enterprises. 3. Use the "more participation of developing countries" clause to formulate policies to encourage the expansion of overseas services.

Fourth, strengthen the legislative work in the field of service trade.

According to the basic principles of GATS, combined with the reality of China's service industry, the laws and regulations of various service sectors are formulated, and on this basis, a unified service trade law is formulated, with special attention to making full use of the exception clauses of GATS and giving China's service industry due protection from legislation.

Fifth, the development status of China's service industry determines that the opening-up of China's service industry can't be achieved in one step, and it can only be gradually opened at different levels.

First of all, we should clean up and rectify the existing areas of opening up and grasp the overall situation of the country's opening up. On this basis, we should adhere to the principle of self-centeredness, and gradually open China's service trade market at different levels, so as to form a gradient opening situation and reduce the impact of service trade opening.

Secondly, according to the development and characteristics of various departments, the degree of openness is divided into forbidden departments, restricted departments and encouraged departments. Specifically, the service industries that threaten national security and social stability (such as publishing and audio-visual services) and those that are prohibited from operating in China and are harmful to the health of the people of China are not obliged to open to the outside world and are prohibited from opening to the outside world. For finance, insurance, telecommunications, information consulting and other services. The development of China's national economy is indeed necessary. Departments with low degree of domestic marketization and serious lack of self-sufficiency should strictly limit the degree and steps of opening up and strengthen supervision and management after opening up. Thirdly, in the arrangement of regional opening level, it can be opened from coastal to inland gradient. The opening up of coastal areas can be slightly stronger, and the opening up of some service departments can be piloted in coastal areas first, and then extended to the mainland after success.

To sum up, in the development trend of international service trade, how to catch up with the weakness of China's service trade and share the feast of the liberalization trend of service trade is an unavoidable problem for the development of China's service trade and China's foreign trade. Through the thinking and discussion on the present situation, causes, problems and countermeasures of China's service trade, it aims to show that opening up is inevitable and strategic. Only by opening and developing China's service trade market strategically can China's service industry and service trade develop rapidly and healthily and make due contributions to China's economic development. & lt/TD & gt； & lt/TR & gt；