WTO Domestic Regulation and Services Trade Putting Principles into Practice

Domestic regulation of services sectors has a significant impact on services trade liberalization, which is why General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) disciplines are negotiated in the WTO. With the help of analyses and case-studies from academics, regulators and trade experts, this book explores the scope and limits of WTO legal principles to promote domestic regulatory reform. Case-studies discuss country-specific challenges and experiences of regulating important service sectors, such as finance, telecommunications, distribution, legal, education, health, postal and logistics services, as well as the role of regulatory impact assessments. The findings will interest trade officials, policy-makers, regulators, think tanks and businesses concerned with the implications of domestic regulation on access to services markets, and with the opportunities for formulating trade disciplines in this area. It is also a useful resource for academics and students researching regulatory approaches and practices in services sectors.

1. An introduction to domestic regulation and GATS Aik Hoe Lim and Bart De Meester; Part I. Impediments to Services Trade, Regulatory Theory and Principles: 2. Why regulate? An overview of the rationale and purpose behind regulation Tinne Heremans; 3. Domestic regulation: what are the costs and benefits for international trade in services? Hildegunn Kyvik Nordås; Part II. Legal Perspectives on WTO Principles and Domestic Regulations: 4. Reasonableness, impartiality and objectivity Andrew Mitchell and Tania Voon; 5. Balancing legal certainty with regulatory flexibility Markus Krajewski; 6. Who's afraid of necessity? And why it matters? Panagiotis Delimatsis; 7. Mutual recognition of services regulation at the WTO Joel P. Trachtman; Part III. Case-studies: 8. Legal services in the United States Erica Moeser and Laurel Terry; 9. Telecommunications reform in China: fostering competition through state intervention Henry Gao; 10. Information communication technology: the Mauritian experience of regulation and reform Krishna Oolun; 11. Regulation of postal services in a changing market environment: lessons from Australia and elsewhere Siva Somasundram and Iain Sandford; 12. Mobile money services provision in East Africa: the Ugandan experience Joan Apecu, Irene Kaggwa Sewankambo and Yusuf Atiku Abdalla; 13. Financial services liberalization and regulation in Japan: implications for future negotiation on market access and domestic regulations Masamichi Kono, Koichi Iwai and Yoshitaka Sakai; 14. Domestic regulations in Malaysia's higher education sector Tham Siew Yean and Nik Ahmad Kamal Nik Mahmod; 15. Domestic regulations and India's trade in health services: a study of hospital and telemedicine services Rupa Chanda and Pralok Gupta; 16. Operating integrated logistics services in a fragmented regulatory environment: what is the cost? Ruosi Zhang; 17. Domestic regulation of retail food distribution services in Israel: the missing link between food prices and social protest Tomer Broude and Lior Herman; 18. Regulatory impact analysis Darrell Porter and Lauren Wight; Part IV. Concluding Remarks: 19. Services liberalization, negotiations and regulation: some lessons from the GATS experience Hamid Mamdouh; 20. Addressing the domestic regulation and services trade interface: reflections on the way ahead Aik Hoe Lim and Bart De Meester.

Aik Hoe Lim is a Counsellor in the Trade in Services Division of the WTO Secretariat, where he is Secretary to the body responsible for negotiating domestic regulation disciplines for services.
Bart De Meester is an Associate at the Geneva Office of Sidley Austin LLP. He previously worked as a Legal Affairs Officer at the Trade in Services Division of the WTO.