General Agreement on Trade in Services

The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) is a treaty of the World Trade Organization (WTO) that entered into force in January 1995 as a result of the Uruguay Round negotiations. The treaty was created to extend the multilateral trading system to service sector, in the same way the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) provides such a system for merchandise trade.

All members of the WTO are signatories to the GATS. The basic WTO principle of most favoured nation (MFN) applies to GATS as well. However, upon accession, Members may introduce temporary exemptions to this rule.

About the GATS

Similar in principle to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which deals with trade in goods, the GATS has two primary objectives: first, to ensure that all signatories are treated equitably when accessing foreign markets; and second, to promote progressive liberalization of trade in services (over time, eliminating trade barriers to enable further participation in one another's markets).