Assessment Of Trade In Services In The Context Of The Gats 2000 Negotiations

Health ministries around the world face a new challenge: to assess the risks and respond to the opportunities of the increasing openness in health services under the World Trade Organization's (WTO) General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). 'International Trade in Health Services and the GATS' addresses this challenge head-on by providing analytical tools to policymakers in health and trade ministries alike who are involved in the liberalization agenda and, specifically, in the GATS negotiations. This book informs and assists policymakers in formulating trade policy and negotiating internationally. There is ongoing and animated international debate about the impact of GATS on public services in general and health in particular. In response, the book offers different perspectives from more than 15 leading experts. Some of the authors stress opportunities linked to trade in health services, others focus more on the risks. The book offers: Detailed legal analysis of the impact of the agreement on health policy An overview of trade commitments in health-related services New empirical evidence from nine country studies A simple 10-step explanation on how to deal with GATS negotiations. 'International Trade in Health Services and the GATS' is a must-have resource for policymakers and other practitioners working in the trade and health sectors.

A Brookings Institution Press and the Center for Business and Government at Harvard University publication With the negotiation of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), the policies affecting access to, and conditions of competition in, service markets are today firmly rooted in the multilateral trading system. Written with policymakers and practitioners in mind, the essays in this volume address some of the most pressing questions arising in services trade today—some of which were not addressed by the first generation of GATS negotiators.

This Research Handbook explores the latest frontiers in services trade by drawing on insights from empirical economics, law and global political economy. The world’s foremost experts take stock of the learning done to date in services trade, explore policy questions bedevilling analysts and direct attention to a host of issues, old and new, confronting those interested in the service economy and its rising salience in cross-border exchange. The Handbook’s 22 chapters shed informed analytical light on a subject matter whose substantive remit continues to be shaped by rapid evolutions in technology, data gathering, market structures, consumer preferences, approaches to regulation and by ongoing shifts in the frontier between the market and the state.

A comprehensive analysis of GATS that considers its historical context, the national preferences that shaped it, and a path to a GATS 2.0. The previous two volumes in The Regulation of International Trade analyzed the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the first successful agreement to generate multilateral trade liberalization, and the World Trade Organization (WTO), for which the GATT laid the groundwork. In this third volume, Petros Mavroidis turns to the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), a WTO treaty that took effect in 1995, and offers a comprehensive analysis that considers the historical context of the GATS, the national preferences that shaped it, and a path to a GATS 2.0.

Serving Whose Interests? explores the political economy of trade in services agreements from a critical legal perspective. The controversy surrounding the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and its variants at the regional and bilateral levels can, it is argued, be seen as a clash between two paradigms. For most of the twentiet

"The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) extends the multilateral trading system to services. Little is said In the GATS about subsidies, beyond stipulating that subsidies are subject to the existing provisions, including the most-favoured-nation and national-treatment principles, and that Members shall enter into negotiations with a view to developing the disciplines necessary to avoid the trade distorting effects of subsidies." "This timely book provides a comprehensive analysis of services subsidies under the GATS. It begins with a description of services and trade in services, and of the salient characteristics that make regulation of services subsidies more complex than those associated with agricultural and industrial goods. It then analyzes the economic arguments underpinning the need for regulation, as well as the need for governments to retain sufficient latitude to implement non-trade-related policy measures. A description of the information available on services subsidies is followed by a classification of services subsidies according to their distortive effects, and by a detailed analysis of those elements that may form a definition of services subsidies for the purpose of a future regulatory framework." "A key section is devoted to the analysis of those existing provisions of the GATS that may exert a certain measure of discipline on services subsidies, and to the question of the desirability and technical feasibility of countervailing measures. Rules on services subsidies contained in regional trade agreements and the need for special and differential treatment for services subsidies by developing countries are also discussed. Finally, and prior to the conclusion, two sectoral studies deal with the question of subsidies aimed at attracting foreign direct investment and subsidies to the audiovisual sector." "This work represents the first extensive and comprehensive analysis of the issue of services subsidies in the context of the GATS, and includes numerous references to relevant European Union State Aid legislation and jurisprudence." --Book Jacket.

This document represents the first step in a consultation process aimed at determining the negotiating position of the Canadian environmental services sector in the next round of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) negotiations. It begins with a brief review of the GATS, then presents an overview of the service industries within a global & domestic context, an analysis of the environmental services sector globally & in Canada, a discussion of the changing international & domestic regulatory & trade environments, and analysis of current GATS commitments related to environmental services. Finally, initial Canadian objectives for GATS 2000 negotiations are proposed along with questions for public comment. Appendices include a glossary and a summary of GATS commitments related to environmental services.