IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cpr/ceprdp/1150.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Tentative First Steps: An Assessment of the Uruguay Round Agreement on Services

Author

Listed:
  • Hoekman, Bernard

Abstract

The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) is a landmark in terms of creating multilateral disciplines in virgin territory, but is a failure in terms of generating liberalization and locking-in existing policy regimes affecting international transactions in services. There are two key issues that should be addressed in evaluating the GATS. First, what does it do to bind policies? Second, has it established a mechanism that will induce significant liberalization through future rounds of negotiations? This paper concludes that the GATS does not score very high on either dimension. A number of suggestions are made to strengthen the Agreement and support more far-reaching liberalization in the future.

Suggested Citation

  • Hoekman, Bernard, 1995. "Tentative First Steps: An Assessment of the Uruguay Round Agreement on Services," CEPR Discussion Papers 1150, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:1150
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=1150
    Download Restriction: CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hoekman, Bernard & Mavroidis, Petros C, 1995. "The WTO's Agreement on Government Procurement: Expanding Disciplines, Declining Membership?," CEPR Discussion Papers 1112, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Hindley, Brian, 1988. "Service Sector Protection: Considerations for Developing Countries," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 2(2), pages 205-224, May.
    3. Bernard M. Hoekman & Robert M. Stern, 1991. "Evolving Patterns of Trade and Investment in Services," NBER Chapters, in: International Economic Transactions: Issues in Measurement and Empirical Research, pages 237-290, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Deardoff, A.V. & Brown, D.K. & Stern, R.M. & Fox, A.K., 1995. "Computational Analysis of Goods and Services Liberalization in the Uruguay Round," Working Papers 379, Research Seminar in International Economics, University of Michigan.
    5. repec:bla:rdevec:v:1:y:1997:i:3:p:275-93 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Gary P. Sampson & Richard H. Snape, 1985. "Identifying the Issues in Trade in Services," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(2), pages 171-182, June.
    7. repec:ulb:ulbeco:2013/8264 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. William E. Brock, 1982. "A Simple Plan for Negotiating on Trade in Services," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(3), pages 229-240, November.
    9. Hoekman, B.M., 1992. "Conceptual and Political Economy Issues in Liberalizing International Transactions in Services," Working Papers 309, Research Seminar in International Economics, University of Michigan.
    10. Sapir, André, 1991. "The Structure of Services in Europe: A Conceptual Framework," CEPR Discussion Papers 498, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    11. repec:fth:michin:379 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Bhagwati, Jagdish N, 1987. "Trade in Services and the Multilateral Trade Negotiations," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 1(4), pages 549-569, September.
    13. Jagdish N. Bhagwati, 1984. "Splintering and Disembodiment of Services and Developing Nations," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(2), pages 133-144, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bernard Hoekman & Carlos Braga, 1997. "Protection and Trade in Services: A Survey," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 8(3), pages 285-308, July.
    2. Joseph Francois & Bernard Hoekman, 2010. "Services Trade and Policy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(3), pages 642-692, September.
    3. Rachel McCulloch & Maurice R. Greenberg & Lionel H. Olmer, 1988. "International Competition in Services," NBER Chapters, in: The United States in the World Economy, pages 367-422, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Koopmann Georg & Straubhaar Thomas, 2009. "Zur Internationalisierung des Dienstleistungssektors," Review of Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 60(2), pages 81-102, August.
    5. Langhammer, Rolf J., 2000. "Developing countries as exporters of services: looking beyond success episodes," Kiel Working Papers 992, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    6. Bradford, Scott C. & Das, Satya & Saha, Anuradha, 2022. "Country size, per-capita income, and comparative advantage: services versus manufacturing," MPRA Paper 115091, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Bernard Ascher & Obie G. Whichard, 1991. "Developing a Data System for International Sales of Services: Progress, Problems, and Prospects," NBER Chapters, in: International Economic Transactions: Issues in Measurement and Empirical Research, pages 203-236, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Langhammer, Rolf J., 1989. "North-South trade in services: Some empirical evidence," Open Access Publications from Kiel Institute for the World Economy 1992, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    9. Francois, Joseph & Christen, Elisabeth, 2010. "Modes of Delivery in Services," CEPR Discussion Papers 7912, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Hoekman, Bernard, 1993. "Developing Countries and the Uruguay Round Negotiations on Services," CEPR Discussion Papers 822, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    11. Fred Henneberger & Alexandre Ziegler, 2003. "Aussenhandel und Auslandsproduktion im Dienstleistungssektor: Theorie und Empirie der Beschäftigungseffekte für die schweizerische Tourismusbranche," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 139(IV), pages 535-561, December.
    12. Francois, Joseph & Wooton, Ian, 2001. "Market structure, trade liberalization and the GATS," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 389-402, June.
    13. Francois, Joseph & Schuknecht, Ludger, 1999. "Trade in Financial Services: Procompetitive Effects and Growth Performance," CEPR Discussion Papers 2144, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    14. Agarwal, Jamuna Prasad, 1996. "Does foreign direct investment contribute to unemployment in home countries? An empirical survey," Kiel Working Papers 765, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    15. Gelb, Alan & Sagari, Silvia, 1990. "Trade in banking services : issues for multilateral negotiations," Policy Research Working Paper Series 381, The World Bank.
    16. Jagdish Bhagwati & Arvind Panagariya, 2004. "The Muddles over Outsourcing," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 18(4), pages 93-114, Fall.
    17. Deepak Kumar Behera, 2018. "Determinants of Employment Potential in India’s Service Sector: The Post-reform Experience," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 61(4), pages 639-657, December.
    18. Anirudh SHINGAL & Pierre SAUVÉ, 2019. "The labour market effects of applied service regimes and service sector reforms," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 158(1), pages 191-211, March.
    19. Bernard M. Hoekman & Robert M. Stern, 1991. "Evolving Patterns of Trade and Investment in Services," NBER Chapters, in: International Economic Transactions: Issues in Measurement and Empirical Research, pages 237-290, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Marchetti, Juan A., 2004. "Developing countries in the WTO services negotiations," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2004-06, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    GATS; Multilateral Trade Negotiations; Trade in Services; Trade Policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:1150. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cepr.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.