Market access is the most important liberalizing principle in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). It entails a general prohibition of quantitative restrictions, which however is conditional on commitments undertaken by Members in their respective Schedules of Commitments. Case-law...

Can a WTO Member discriminate against foreign suppliers of services located in jurisdictions that refuse to share information with a government to permit it to determine if its nationals engage in tax evasion? Does it matter if the Member uses standards developed by an international body as the...

Agreed commitments under GATS — both general and specific — amount to substantial qualifications to the exercise of sovereignty and powers in shaping domestic regulation of services. Members therefore agreed to introduce security exceptions aimed to preserve Members’ freedom of action in...

This contribution offers a comprehensive analysis of Art. XIX GATS, entitled “Negotiation of Specific Commitments”, which clarifies the manner in which negotiations under the GATS should proceed in order to progressively achieve higher levels of liberalization. This provision also identifies...

The negotiations relating to domestic regulations in services are entering their final phase. While the implementation of their results will depend on overcoming the current stalemate in the Doha negotiating round, it becomes increasingly clear that Members will want to capitalize on the...

The current financial upheaval has brought about a reconsideration of regulatory and corporate practices in the financial sector. This paper claims that the current multilateral framework regulating services, that is, the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), should be revisited to...

On the occasion of the US - Gambling ruling, the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) came to the forefront. Several critiques against this ruling highlighted the urgent need to clarify important concepts laid down in the GATS. Domestic regulation is arguably the overarching concept...

This paper attempts to shed some light to the relationship between new mechanisms to mitigate climate change and promote renewable energy generation, and the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). Trade in Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) is a market-based scheme that promotes energy...