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Topics handled by WTO committees and agreements
Issues covered by the WTO’s committees and agreements

 SERVICES: SECTOR BY SECTOR
Health and social services

The sector includes hospital services, services delivered under the direction of medical doctors chiefly to in-patients aimed at curing, reactivating and/or maintaining the health status; other human health services, ambulance services, residential health facilities services other than hospital services; social services with or without accommodation. The definition of health-related and social services does not include medical and dental services, veterinary services and the services provided by nurses, midwives etc., which have been grouped separately under professional services.

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The current negotiations back to top

Health and social services are included in the new services negotiations, which began January 2000.

 
  
The mandate back to top

Principles of trade in health and social services are contained, like for all services, in the GATS.

  
  
Current commitments and exemptions back to top

> All commitments and MFN exemptions. Search for health and social services in the commitments for services by country.

For consolidated information on countries' commitments and exemptions on health and social services go to the services database (opens a new window) click “predefined reports”, then click “All sectors and each level of development”. From the list of sectors select “health and social services”. Information is broken down by the country's level of development (developed, developing, least developed or transition). Data covers the period January 1995 to December 1999. Does not include data on current negotiations or on countries which joined the WTO since January 2000.

 
  
 Documents on health and social services back to top

Search Documents Online
These links open a new window: allow a moment for the results to appear.

  • Background paper on health and social services (Document code S/* and keyword “health or social”)     > search     > help

You can perform more sophisticated searches from the Documents Online search facility (opens in new window) by defining multiple search criteria such as document symbol (i.e. code number), full text search or document date.


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