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How to design trade agreements in services: Top down or bottom up?

Author

Listed:
  • Adlung, Rudolf
  • Mamdouh, Hamid

Abstract

This paper deals with claims, recently raised in various circles, that structural faults in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) have prevented WTO Members from advancing services liberalization under the Agreement. The GATS is generally associated in this context with a bottom-up (positive-list) scheduling approach where the sectors on which trade commitments are undertaken are selected individually. This is claimed to be less efficient, in terms of liberalization effects, than alternative approaches under which everything is considered to be fully committed unless specifically excluded (top-down or negative listing). However, a closer look at services negotiations conducted in various settings, including the Doha-Round process, WTO accession cases and different types of regional trade agreements, suggests that such structural issues have limited, if any, impact on the results achieved. What ultimately matters are not negotiating or scheduling techniques, but the political impetus that the governments concerned are ready to generate.

Suggested Citation

  • Adlung, Rudolf & Mamdouh, Hamid, 2013. "How to design trade agreements in services: Top down or bottom up?," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2013-08, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:wtowps:ersd201308
    DOI: 10.30875/7ceccfa3-en
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Anderson, Robert D. & Locatelli, Claudia & Müller, Anna Caroline & Pelletier, Philippe, 2014. "The relationship between services trade and government procurement commitments: Insights from relevant WTO agreements and recent RTAs," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2014-21, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    2. Marchetti, Juan A. & Roy, Martin, 2013. "The Tisa initiative: An overview of market access issues," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2013-11, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    3. de Melo, Jaime & Vijil, Mariana, 2014. "Barriers to Trade in Environmental Goods and Environmental Services: How Important Are They? How Much Progress at Reducing Them?," Climate Change and Sustainable Development 172425, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    4. Tanu M. Goyal, 2021. "Technology Uncertainty and Incompleteness in Trade Agreements: Reflections from the Design of India’s Bilateral Agreements Covering Services," Foreign Trade Review, , vol. 56(3), pages 322-340, August.
    5. Nianli Zhou & John Whalley, 2014. "How Do the "GATS-Plus" and "GATS-Minus" Characteristics of Regional Service Agreements Affect Trade in Services?," NBER Working Papers 20551, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Sigit Setiawan, 2018. "Negative List in Services Liberalization for ASEAN Developing Countries," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 8(5), pages 11-20.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    GATS; trade in services; liberalization commitments;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • F53 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - International Agreements and Observance; International Organizations

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