24 September 2001
WTO publishes Guide to the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)

This Guide prepared by specialists of the WTO Secretariat provides an assessment of recent developments in major sectors of services trade and examines issues governments will confront as they pursue liberalization of services trade.

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The authors consider the economic importance of particular services sectors, the ways in which they are regulated and traded, problems of definition and classification, the pattern of commitments under the GATS and sources of further information. In many cases they suggest areas of further work, and some identify prevalent forms of trade restriction or discrimination

The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) is the first ever set of multilateral, legally-enforceable rules covering international trade in services. Negotiations on commitments in four sectors have taken place after the Uruguay Round. A full new services round started, as required in GATS, in 2000.