ABSTRACT
The Agreement on Services is the first multilateral agreement aimed at liberalizing services, which are becoming increasingly commercialized. Hitherto considered as support for the trade in goods, services are now recognized as also being negotiable products. Liberalizing services permits this sector to be modernized through the contribution of foreign investments, but also benefits the whole economy. In the mid-1980s, the trade in services represented nearly one-fifth of world exports, and its share of added value was 37 per cent for low-income countries, 53 per cent for middle-income countries and more than 70 per cent for developed countries (Stephenson 2000: 3).
