Talk:Trade in services
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I am quite pleased to see this article. Trade in Services is much more or much less than what the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) defines it to be. There are other agreements, e.g. between EU member countries, and there are people who say that some of what is covered by GATS is not trade in services but for example migration. Please keep this important article and let us improve. Get-back-world-respect 09:44, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Trade in Services is defined by GATS in the context of a multilateral legal framework. Criticizing GATS as not sufficiently defining trade in services is like criticizing marriage for not sufficiently defining a relationship between human beings. i.e. it wasn't meant to be all encompassing - it *was* intended to create a framework which can be used in a legal context. Having said that, the Four Modes do a very good job of covering all international trade in services. Migration is not a trade in service. It is migration. Once a human being (natural person) changes legal residence (migrates - i.e. immigrates to the new country of residence, emigrates from the former country of residence) his/her services produces (or sold) become domestic services, and therefore not "trade". Mode 4 is short term movement of persons, not migration.
The GATS is a *multilateral* legal agreement agreed upon by WTO members. EU agreements (negotiated by the EC, in fact, not the EU) are *regional agreements*. Agreements made under FTAs have a special relationship under WTO law, including the GATS. You need to brush up on your international law - or start reading it for the first time.
The same governments who negotiated and signed regional agreements also negotiated and signed the WTO Agreements, of which the GATS is part. There is an irrational fear that some supranational entity created the GATS, which is utterly false. The same governments negotiate in regional and multilateral contexts. Any issues with regional or international treaties need to be addressed to national governments. Istia
