GATS Rules Negotiations

We touch upon the recent state of play of the GATS rules negotiations. with a view to exploring a useful guidance for the developing new rules. We also discuss a number of substantive issues concerning the emergency safeguard measure (ESM), service subsidy disciplines and service government procurement rules. For the ESM, we discuss desirability, feasibility of the new ESM, conditions of ESM, measues available and who shall be protected by the ESM. Then we discuss the service subsidy issues such as the scope of the disciplines, classification and types of subsidies, conditions for disciplines and applicable measures. Concerning the government procurement rules, we discuss how to harmonize the new multilateral rules with the existing Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA). Finally, we conclude with future issues such as the ESM and subsidy rules in FTAs and the potential sectoral approach.