1. Discussant remarks on ECE/CES/GE.23/2009/14 WTO
Agenda item 7
Labour mobility
Discussant remarks on ECE/CES/GE.23/2009/14
WTO

2. Labour mobility The issue
Globalisation has brought greater cross-border labour mobility and trade in international services
Can we measure these two well? Can we distinguish between them?
Trade in services personally delivered (mode 4) is different from temporary mobile labour by type of contract

3. Labour mobility No indication of the size of the problem Figures by
Whole world
Major economies
Developing economies
Is the issue missing figures or non-identifiable figures?
How does it affect key NA and BPM measures – trade in services vis a vis income from employment – how much does this matter?

4. Labour mobility Background Labour mobility - < 3 months temporary
3 – 12 months short-term
> 12 months long-term
Mode 4 services employed / self-employed
Why is the split of interest? Clear statement on why it matters to the implementation of GATT

5. Labour mobility International standards
MSITS is being revised to be in line with SNA 2008 and BPM 6
RSIM Rev 1: Stats on International migration also in line
So no great problems with standards as such

6. Labour mobility Measurement problems
It is difficult to distinguish between short-term employment and service (personal delivery)
Late in the paper, we discover
“for GATS, need to know which of the international services are delivered personally (mode 4)

7. Labour mobility Measurement problems
Proposals on what to do in practice – missing
Future work – further papers

8. Labour mobility Questions and issues
Should we have a common terminology?
Yes. (But which one? Use NA / BPM derived ones
Further guidelines? Yes for users
Further research? Yes if it leads to a good proposal for more data

9. Labour mobility Modifications to primary data?
Only if the case is strong.
Framework research?
Yes – satellite accounts is an excellent way to develop new measures and allow proposals to enter main stream to emerge.