Restrictions on Trade in Professional Services in Central and Eastern Europe

Business, including professional services are among the most flourishing services sectors and are regarded as essential drivers of economic growth. The goal of this study is to examine the regulatory regimes governing professional services in Central and Eastern European countries. The paper quantifies restrictions through an OECD services trade restrictiveness index, which shows the height of the barriers applying to supply of four professional services subsectors. The study found that CEE economies tend to impose relatively highly restrictive policies, effectively hampering trade in professional services. The results are driven primarily by the sectoral characteristics which are found in the prevalence of qualification and licensing requirements (determining issues relating to entry and practice of a given professions), but they can also be attributed to general measures affecting all sectors of the economy, including quotas and labour market tests on different categories of service providers. Thus, the CEE's governments and private professional associations are called upon to fulfil their decisive regulatory role and serve the objective of improving access to the professions such as accounting, law, architecture and engineering.