Share this

by

Emad Tinawi and Judson O. Berkey

The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) establishes the global rules for the trade of services. Less than five years after their adoption by the WTO, the GATS rules of classifying services are inadequate to deal with the rapid expansion of the delivery of services electronically (E-Services). In
particular, there is considerable ambiguity as to the classification of E-Services and therefore a corresponding ambiguity as to the market access commitments made by WTO members with respect to E-Services. In fact, it is very difficult to determine what these market access commitments are for many E-Services. In this article, we attempt to illuminate these ambiguities and propose possible solutions for their resolution.