Public Services and GATS

Rolf Adlung

Working Papers from eSocialSciences

Abstract: The status of public services is one of the most hotly debated issues surrounding the GATS. There are two approaches to distinguish such services from any other services: an institutional approach that focuses on the legal and institutional conditions governing supply (e.g. ownership status, market organisation), and a functional approach based on the policy objectives that may be involved (e.g. distributional and quality-related considerations, concepts of universal access). This paper discusses the relevance of the GATS for different organisational settings - from government monopolies to regulated and/or subsidized private provision - that may be used by WTO Members to meet typical public service objectives. It turns out that virtually all forms of organisation can be accommodated within the framework of the Agreement. To fully exploit its opportunities and avoid unpleasant surprises, however, governments would need to thoroughly analyse the relevant provisions in the light of their own policy objectives.

Keywords: WTO; Services; public services; trade in services; monopolies; GATS; Economics; International Economic Relations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005-12
Note: Institutional Papers
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.esocialsciences.org/Download/repecDownl ... s&AId=287&fref=repec

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:ess:wpaper:id:287

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from eSocialSciences
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Padma Prakash ().