WTO/GATS
The GATS Agreement is a key component of the WTO’s multilateral trading system and governs international trade in services.
What is the GATS?
The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) forms, together with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT 94) and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), one of the three pillars of the World Trade Organization (WTO) multilateral trading system. It governs trade in services at the multilateral level.
The GATS aims, on the one hand, to ensure greater transparency and predictability of rules and regulations in services trade and, on the other hand, to improve market access and grant national treatment (non-discrimination between domestic and foreign suppliers) to foreign services and service suppliers through progressive liberalisation. The GATS is based on the most-favoured-nation clause (non-discrimination between WTO Members), which applies to all services covered by the Agreement unless exempted. The GATS does not imply deregulation. On the contrary, it explicitly recognises the right to regulate and to introduce new regulations, to achieve national policy objectives.
In principle, the GATS applies to all service sectors supplied through all modes (cross-border supply, consumption abroad, commercial presence abroad, supply of services by natural persons abroad). Services provided in the exercise of governmental authority are excluded. Members undertake to provide market access and national treatment only in those service sectors for which a Member has undertaken commitments. Sectors that are not included in the Members' Schedule of Specific Commitments are therefore not committed.
Each Member thus inscribes in its list the service sectors for which it grants market access to foreign suppliers (e.g. financial-, maritime-, telecommunications services) by mode of supply. This list can identify quantitative restrictions (quotas, economic needs clauses, monopolies), limitations on the form of juridical persons and on foreign ownership as well as reservations on national treatment (e.g. subsidies, residency requirements) which remain applicable. A second list allows each Member to enumerate exemptions to the most-favoured-nation clause. In principle, this second list can be modified only to remove discrimination among WTO Members. The most-favoured-nation principle does not apply, however, to preferential treatment granted in the framework of free trade agreements.
Switzerland’s consolidated schedule of specific commitments of is available below. It contains the commitments from the Uruguay Round concluded in 1994 as well as from subsequent negotiations.
Disciplines on Services Domestic Regulation
On 2 December 2021, the plurilateral negotiations on services domestic regulation were successfully concluded. The new disciplines supplement the existing GATS commitments for the 72 participating members. The disciplines concern domestic measures on licensing requirements and procedures, qualification requirements and procedures, and technical standards that service suppliers must comply with in order to offer their services in a foreign market. The aim is to improve the clarity, transparency and legal certainty of procedures for granting licences to provide services, while maintaining the regulatory autonomy of the WTO members involved, and thus to reduce barriers to trade in services. The WTO members involved have agreed to apply these disciplines on the basis of the most-favoured-nation principle, i.e. to all WTO members. The disciplines on services domestic regulation entered into force for Switzerland on 27 February 2024.
Switzerland's supplement to its schedule of specific commitments with the disciplines on services domestic regulation is available below (Supplement 5).
Review of Swiss trade policy
Switzerland is subject to a trade policy review every four years at the WTO. The last review was completed in May 2022.
Notifications pursuant to the GATS
With a view to ensuring greater transparency in trade in services, WTO Members are required to notify, inter alia, changes to national legal and regulatory frameworks governing services sectors. Switzerland's notifications are published by the WTO.
- World Trade Organization - Notification Portal
Switzerland's notifications
Documents
GATS
General Agreement on Trade in Services
Switzerland's Consolidated Schedule of Specific Commitments
Supplement 5 to the list of specific commitment of Switzerland
Sectoral Services Classification
Description of the Sectors (Provisional CPC)
Notification and schedule of specific commitments of Switzerland in favour of LDCs
Index
Related topics
Trade in services in free trade agreements (FTAs)
Switzerland maintains preferential relations in the services sector through free trade agreements, most of which have been concluded within the framework of EFTA.
Digital Trade / E-Commerce
Switzerland is committed to establishing international rules for digital trade and supports the free flow of data in order to develop long-term solutions for the digital economy.
Services Trade Cockpit
The Services Trade Cockpit is an interactive overview of the most important statistics on trade in services with the main trading partners.
Trade in services policy
Services are the most dynamic sector and a key driver of the Swiss economy.
Contact
Foreign Economic Affairs Directorate
Special Foreign Economic Service / Services
Holzikofenweg 36
CH - 3003 Bern