What WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS): Most-Favoured-Nation, National Treatment, Market Access, Domestic Regulation, and General Exceptions requires
The WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services, known as GATS, is the foundational multilateral agreement governing cross-border trade in services and binds all WTO Members across four modes of supply: cross-border supply, consumption abroad, commercial presence, and presence of natural persons. Article I sets the scope and definitions. Article II requires each Member to accord most-favoured-nation treatment, that is treatment no less favourable than that accorded to like services and service suppliers of any other Member. Article III imposes transparency by requiring prompt publication of all relevant measures of general application affecting trade in services. Article VI requires that all measures of general application affecting trade in services are administered in a reasonable, objective and impartial manner. Article VIII requires Members to ensure that monopoly suppliers of a service do not act inconsistently with Article II or with scheduled commitments. Article XIV sets out general exceptions for measures necessary to protect public morals, human, animal or plant life or health, and to secure compliance with laws and regulations not inconsistent with GATS. Article XIV bis preserves security exceptions. Articles XVI and XVII govern the specific commitments scheduled by each Member on market access and national treatment respectively. Article XIX commits Members to successive rounds of negotiations with a view to progressively higher liberalization. Article XXIII establishes the dispute settlement and enforcement framework. The Agreement is the controlling instrument for services trade compliance under the multilateral trading system.
Pillar: Trade Compliance & Export Controls · Authority: World Trade Organization · Version: 1.0.0 · Last updated:
Primary source: https://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/26-gats_01_e.htm
SHA-256 integrity: 6009b155632c4ce98ccd6d8648ac53de5223580c79f94830fcc7d51784846d3d
Primary Citations — 8 traced to source
- WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services, Article I - scope and definitions, including the four modes of supply.
- WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services, Article II - most-favoured-nation treatment.
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