ABSTRACT
Services include ‘any service in any sector except for services supplied in the exercise of governmental authority’. The latter are services supplied ‘neither on a commercial basis, nor in competition with one or more service suppliers’ (GATS Article 1). The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) was adopted in the course of the Uruguay negotiation Round and entered into force in 1995. As laid down in the preamble, it is intended to contribute to trade expansion ‘under the conditions of transparency and progressive liberalization’. It provides a legally binding framework of rules and principles for trade in services. It applies to all ‘measures affecting trade in services’(Article 1). Measures mean any action relevant to trade taken by central, regional or local governments and authorities or non-governmental bodies in the exercise of delegated powers (Article 1). Measures affecting trade in services can potentially be found in almost any domain of domestic regulation.
