OTAs

RCEP and Digital Services

Larger regional agreements, like RCEP, provide the size and scale in an agreement that can unleash new growth prospects.  To get there, however, requires officials, ministers and leaders to seize the chance and create something special.  RCEP has to address barriers to trade in services, for example.  Services are critically important to the economy of the future.  Even trade in goods requires that services be considered, since blockages on the movement of services across borders can fundamentally impede the growth of trade in physical products like manufactured goods and agricultural items.  Increasingly, services will be provided digitally.  One such example is the rise of online travel agencies (OTAs.)  These service providers represent a new dimension to travel and tourism, as they match up customers seeking things like accommodation, rental cars, or local experiences like cooking classes or photography tours with local providers and vendors of such services.