CEFTA

The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) is a multilateral agreement within the World Trade Organization (WTO) framework that establishes rules for trade in services. Its primary objectives are:

• To liberalise trade in services sectors, such as telecommunications, financial services, and tourism; and
  
• To create a predictable international system of rules for trade in services.
  

The GATS sets out key principles like the most-favoured-nation (MFN) treatment and the national treatment (NT), aimed at ensuring that foreign service providers are not discriminated on the basis of the origin of the supplier or the service and are treated no less favourably than domestic ones in WTO Members.

• Most-favoured-nation (MFN) treatment requires that WTO Members treat services and service suppliers of any other WTO Member no less favourably than those of any other WTO Member. This aims at preventing discriminatory treatment between different WTO Members; and
  
• National treatment (NT) requires that each WTO Member treats services and service suppliers of other WTO Members no less favourably than its own domestic services and service suppliers. This means that foreign service providers shall not be subject to more burdensome regulations or restrictions than domestic ones. 

Other commitments under the GATS include transparency obligations, requiring the publication of relevant laws and regulations, as well as means to facilitate the recognition of professional qualifications among WTO Members.

A great number of services are covered under the GATS, although some exceptions exist. The full list of those sectors and sub-sectors covered by the GATS is provided here, as prepared by the WTO Secretariat to inform on the implementation of the GATS by establishing a clear classification of existing services sectors.