The Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) and Its Compatibility with GATS: An Assessment Based on Current Evidence

Rudolf Adlung

World Trade Review, 2015, vol. 14, issue 4, 617-641

Abstract: Measured by the standards of the relevant GATS provisions, in Article V, a very significant share of current regional trade agreements (RTAs) in services is deficient. This includes agreements involving the 50 odd WTO Members that are currently negotiating a Trade in Services Agreement (TISA). While these agreements might have improved significantly on many commitments contained in current GATS schedules, mostly submitted two decades ago, they also introduced new restrictions for which no GATS equivalents exist. Moreover, in a number of cases the parties fiddled with the definitional framework provisions and generally binding obligations and disciplines of the GATS. Should these attempts continue, TISA could not live up to its proclaimed objective of promoting future multilateral liberalization. Nevertheless, a closer look at some RTAs previously concluded by TISA parties also suggests that, with political will, there is a possibility to avoid aberrations: a clause providing that in the event of inconsistencies with WTO/GATS provisions, the latter shall prevail. The incorporation of such a clause might be viewed as a litmus test on participants' continued commitment to multilateralism.

Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/ ... type/journal_article link to article abstract page (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cup:wotrrv:v:14:y:2015:i:04:p:617-641_00

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in World Trade Review from Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press, UPH, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB2 8BS UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Kirk Stebbing ().