The WTO negotiations on services: The regulatory state up for grabs
نویسندگان
چکیده
Robert Howse is professor of law at University of Michigan Law School, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Elisabeth Tuerk is staff attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), Geneva, Switzerland. SETTING THE STAGE FOR NEGOTIATIONS At present, WTO members are negotiating to further liberalize international trade in services. Services cover activities ranging from financial and telecommunications services over health and education to energy services and the provision of water. In the context of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), trade-policy makers currently design new rules to more comprehensively govern worldwide trade in such services. In June 2003, they will start a new phase of negotiations—the request/offer phase—aimed at rendering each other’s domestic services markets more open by requiring their trading partners to enter into additional liberal commitments under the GATS market access and national treatment provisions. Together, these negotiations bring about a series of challenges for trade-policy makers, domestic regulators, and civil society.
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