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Tariff Of The Agreement And Wto Claim That Reduction Of Trade Barriers

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To start with, the supporters of the agreement and WTO claim that reduction of trade barriers mainly aims to promote a trade, hence increase in development. In fact, because of the specific nature of the services, GATS has strong linkages with regulation issues (Kirkpatric and Parker, 2002). Both, WTO and national governments agree that harmonization of policies should be implemented in a way that protects states’ rights (Jung, 2013). In the preamble of GATS is clearly stated that agreement respects members’ sovereignty and recognize their right to regulate in domestic policies: “Recognizing the right of Members to regulate, and to introduce new regulations, on the supply of services within their territories in order to meet national …show more content…

However, the modern international regime does not prevail over states’ rights to regulate (Jung, 2013). In fact, WTO does not impose Member States to adopt precisely same policies and leaves enough space for domestic regulation (Jung, 2013). Adlung (2010) emphasizes that every single rule at the WTO is being agreed by consensus and support of all Member States. Therefore, sufficient scope for states’ sovereignty in domestic regulations is preserved, thus, national governments are able to decide to what extent they wish to liberalize their service sector and open frontiers for trade (Suave, 2002; Chanda, 2002). Secondly, another feature of the GATS, which is often being discussed is its’ voluntary nature and flexibility in making commitments. WTO assures that commitments are being made on a voluntary basis (Walraven, 2006; Suave, 2002). Supporters of the agreements argue that the GATS impose only manor general commitments. The main requirement arising from the WTO is that Member States would implement their national policies with regards to their obligations undertaken under the GATS (Jung, 2013). Also, it is being noted that commitments are not fixed, it is only legally binding, thus national governments are allowed to modify it relevant to their regulatory objectives, choose to not make any commitments or withdraw it in the later stage (Adlung, 2010; Suave, 2002; WTO, 2002). In

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