Description
The rise of services in international trade is closely linked to rapid technological developments. Services that traditionally required close proximity to customers now can be traded at a distance, allowing firms to reach global markets at lower costs. The OECD Digital Services Trade Restrictiveness Index (DSTRI) measures cross-cutting barriers that inhibit or completely prohibit firms’ ability to supply services using electronic networks, regardless of the sector in which they operate. It includes five measures: 1) infrastructure and connectivity, 2) electronic transactions, 3) e-payment systems, 4) intellectual property rights and 5) other barriers to trade in digitally enabled services. The DSTRI is a composite index that takes values between 0 and 1, where 0 indicates an open regulatory environment for digitally enabled trade and 1 indicates a completely closed regime.
