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.
Read more about General Agreement On Trade In Services: Historical Background, Four Modes of Supply, Sectors Addressed, Criticisms
Famous quotes containing the words general, agreement, trade and/or services:
“Could anything be more indicative of a slight but general insanity than the aspect of the crowd on the streets of Chicago?”
—Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929)
“That which corrodes the souls of the persecuted is the monstrous inner agreement with the prevailing prejudice against them.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)
“I have no doubt that they lived pretty much the same sort of life in the Homeric age, for men have always thought more of eating than of fighting; then, as now, their minds ran chiefly on the “hot bread and sweet cakes;” and the fur and lumber trade is an old story to Asia and Europe.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Those services which the community will most readily pay for, it is most disagreeable to render.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)