Rüdiger Wolfrum, Peter-Tobias Stoll and Clemens Feinäugle, WTO: Trade in Services, Max Planck Commentaries on World Trade Law, Vol. 6

Abstract

During its short history, the WTO has changed fundamentally the face of international economic law. The strong institutional framework of the WTO as well as the broad capture of trade topics and the corresponding dispute settlement procedure are landmarks for the development of international law, even though a growing number of commentators are hesitant to emphasize the idea of a “new constitutional order” in international trade relations. Despite sobering experiences with the effectiveness and acceptance of the dispute settlement procedure and with the long-lasting standstill in trade negotiations, the WTO will remain the central forum for international trade policy. One of the outstanding agreements in this framework is, no doubt, the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), which is the first international instrument that fully covers all aspects of this economic area. It is, at the same time, a very complex agreement with few fundamental rules which are spelled out in detail in highly technical schedules of specific commitments for each individual member.