WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) GlossaryBuyers Up • March 17th, 2006
The World Trade Organization’s (WTO) General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) came into force on January 1, 1995 as one of the 17 major “Uruguay Round" Agreements enforced by the WTO. Because the very notion of including the services sector in a ‘trade’ agreement was so controversial, GATS is structured as a “bottom up” agreement. This means that most GATS requirements only apply to service sectors countries specifically agree to open up to competition by foreign corporations. The GATS consists of three components: a framework agreement which lays out the general rules and obligations for trade and investment in services; several important annexes (sometimes called protocols) on specific service sectors (such as financial and telecommunications services); and a “schedule of commitments” for each WTO signatory government that lists the specific service sectors each nation has signed up to the terms of the agreement. To understand the GATS, one must first understand the following te
