Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP1150
Authors: Bernard Hoekman
Abstract: The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) is a landmark in terms of creating multilateral disciplines in virgin territory, but is a failure in terms of generating liberalization and locking-in existing policy regimes affecting international transactions in services. There are two key issues that should be addressed in evaluating the GATS. First, what does it do to bind policies? Second, has it established a mechanism that will induce significant liberalization through future rounds of negotiations? This paper concludes that the GATS does not score very high on either dimension. A number of suggestions are made to strengthen the Agreement and support more far-reaching liberalization in the future.
Keywords: trade in services; GATS; trade policy; multilateral trade negotiations
JEL Codes: F13
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| GATS commitments (F13) | binding policies (G38) |
| GATS commitments (F13) | future liberalization (E69) |
| GATS does not effectively bind current policies (F68) | failure to generate substantial liberalization commitments (F13) |
| specific commitments + positive list approach (F13) | restrictive measures (F55) |
| lack of transparency + sector-specific commitments (G38) | limited effectiveness of GATS (F13) |
| sectoral coverage of GATS must be expanded (F13) | facilitate meaningful liberalization (P33) |
| scheduling approach critically assessed (C44) | facilitate meaningful liberalization (P33) |