Overview of The WTO

 Objective of presentation

 WTO: The Beginnings

 Growth in Trade Underway

 A New Multilateral Organization

 The WTO: what is it?

 How does the WTO function?

 Principles of the Trading System

 Provisions for developing countries

 Progressing by packages

 The Round to end all rounds

 The WTO Agreement

 Liberalising trade in goods

 Textiles - back in the mainstream

 Agriculture: fairer markets for all

 Trade remedies

 Standards and procedures

 Administrative procedures

 Services: rules for growth and investment

 Services: the key rules

 Services: Better Access to Markets

 Intellectual Property: protection and enforcement of rights

 TRIPS: what does it cover?

 Settling Disputes: the heart of the system

 Meetings of Ministers

  Singapore Ministerial

 Geneva and Seattle Ministerials

 Doha Ministerial Meeting

 Cancun Ministerial Meeting

 Recent Developments

Services: rules for growth and investment

The GATS

The General Agreement on Trade in Services - or the GATS - is the first ever set of multilateral, legally enforceable rules which cover international trade in services. It was negotiated in the Uruguay Round. It operates on three levels. First there is the main text which contains the general principles and obligations. Then there are annexes dealing with rules for specific sectors. Finally, the commitments to provide access to the markets of individual countries form part of the Agreement.

Principles and obligations

The general principles and obligations of the GATS are very similar to those for trade in goods: examples include most-favoured nation treatment and national treatment as well as transparency obligations and commitments to the development of developing countries. Market access commitments — like tariff schedules under the GATT — are an integral part of the agreement.

What does the GATS cover?

The scope of the GATS agreement is particularly broad. It covers all measures affecting internationally-traded services. In fact, it was important in practical terms for negotiators to define what was meant by the term "trade" in services. The definition which was finally adopted is particularly wide in scope.

Modes of delivery

The negotiators decided that trade in services was far more than that which crossed the border - as is the case in trading goods. In the GATS, "trade" includes all the different ways of providing an international service. GATS defines four such methods of providing an international service – these are called modes of delivery.

First, there are services supplied from one country to another - such as international telephone calls. In the jargon of the agreement, this is known as the "cross- border supply" of a service.

Second, the situation of consumers or firms making use of a service in another country - such as tourism- is known as "consumption abroad".

Third, a foreign company may set up subsidiaries or branches to provide services in another country - such as foreign banks operating in a foreign country. This is known as a "commercial presence".

And finally, individuals travelling from their own country to supply services in another country - such as fashion models or consultants travelling abroad to work are referred to as the  "presence of natural persons".

Services sectors and GATS

The result of adopting this far reaching definition of trade in services was that a vast area of commercial activity is covered by the GATS. We only have to think of the "modes of delivery" that exist in the financial services sector which includes banking, security trading and insurance, or the telecommunications services sector or the professional services sector or tourism - just to mention a few services sectors.