Revisiting the Impact of GATS on Public Services

The impact of the WTO’s General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS ) on public services is the subject of intense debates. This chapter analyses the potential effects of the main GATS disciplines, such as most-favoured-nation treatment, market access, national treatment and rules on domestic regulation, on the provision of public services at the national and local level. It also examines the instruments WTO members are afforded by the GATS to mitigate those effects by exempting what they regard as public service from the GATS disciplines. In addition, this chapter examines the GATS overall approach to the notion of public services and its impact on the conceptualisation of public services beyond national borders through regional economic integration. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.