International trade in health services in the millennium: the case of Thailand

1 Associate Professor of Economics, Faculty of Economics, and Associate Dean, College of Public Health, Chulalongkorn University, Phyathai Street, Bangkok 10330, Thailand. 2 Assistant Professor, Director, Center for Health Economics, Faculty of Economics, Chulalongkorn University. International trade is built around international specialization and based upon comparative advantage. It is usually described by terms such as liberalization and globalization. Free trade has long been endorsed by the existence of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The GATT has been used as an international instrument whose objectives are to promote and regulate the liberalization of international trade through “rounds” of trade negotiations. Multilateral trade negotiations held under GATT led to the establishment of an international organization known as the World Trade Organization (WTO) which has international legal status and regulates all matters related to international trade among Members. This organization provides the principal governmental contractual obligations prescribing how governments should frame and implement their trade policies. The principal WTO instrument consists of multilateral agreements that are binding upon Member countries. It includes 29 legal agreements which cover everything from agriculture to textiles and clothing, and from services to government procurement, rules of origin, and intellectual properties.