Cover -- Title Page -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Authors and Their Affiliations -- PART 1 Introduction -- 1 Domestic Regulation and Trade in Services: Key Issues -- Background -- Purpose of Publishing this Book -- The Article VI.4 Work Program -- Accountancy Disciplines -- Telecommunications Reference Paper -- Issues Considered in this Volume -- Questions to ensure that the GATS maintains governments' regulatory freedom -- Questions to ensure that regulation does not nullify or impair the GATS commitments -- Questions to ensure that sound regulation underpins trade and investment liberalization -- Questions to promote internationally harmonized or recognized regulation -- Questions to identify the constraints on regulatory reform and the needs of developing countries -- Questions to determine the types of disciplines that should be developed under Article VI.4 -- Notes -- PART 2 Horizontal Perspectives -- 2 Transparency in Domestic Regulation: Practices and Possibilities -- Executive Summary -- Why Transparency Matters -- Disciplines at the Multilateral Level -- Disciplines at the Regional Level -- Regulatory Practices at the National Level -- Practices on Development of Subordinate Measures -- Practices on Development of Legislative Measures -- Practice on Administrative Decisions -- Developing Countries -- Options for Enhancing Transparency under the GATS -- Types of Measures Covered by the GATS -- Subnational Measures -- Possible Types of Disciplines -- Horizontal versus Sectoral Disciplines -- Binding Disciplines versus Best Endeavors -- Reducing the Potential Administrative Burden -- Special and Differential Treatment -- Transparency at Different Stages of the Regulatory Process -- Making the Regulation -- Making Applications -- Appealing and Reviewing -- Options for Enhancing Transparency.

Improving Domestic Practices on Transparency: Reference Paper on Additional Transparency Requirements -- Improving Transparency of Scheduled Commitments: Standard Forms for WTO Notifications, Economic Needs Tests, and Measures on Mode 4 -- Improving Inquiry Points -- Improving the Breadth of Information Provided: Regulatory Transparency and the Trade Policy Review Mechanism -- Concluding Remarks -- Notes -- References -- 3 Addressing Regulatory Divergence through International Standards: Financial Services -- Executive Summary -- Constructing the Article VI.4 Work Program for Financial Services -- Regulatory Barriers to Trade in Services -- The WTO and the SSBs -- The GATS Process -- Article VI.4 and the Accountancy Disciplines -- Limited Incentives for Article VI.4 Positive Integration Resulting from Weak Negative Integration under Article VI.5 -- The Understanding on Financial Services -- Article VI, Article XIV, and the Line of Equilibrium -- The SSB "Soft Law" Process -- The Basel Committee -- History, Membership, and Purpose -- Standards Promulgated by the Basel Committee -- Decisionmaking in the Basel Committee -- IOSCO -- History, Membership, and Purpose -- Standards Promulgated by IOSCO -- Decisionmaking in IOSCO -- IAIS -- History, Membership, and Purpose -- Standards Promulgated by IAIS -- Decisionmaking in IAIS -- A Critique of the Basel Committee, IAIS, and IOSCO from a Trade Standpoint -- The Trade Restrictive Impact of International Regulatory Standards -- The Unilateral Use of SSBs -- The SSB Process and the International Financial Institutions -- How the IMF Supports the Basel Core Principles -- The FSF and the WTO -- Harnessing the SSB Process to Trade Liberalization and the WTO to Regulatory Effectiveness -- Soft Law, Hard Law, and Hardening Soft Law -- The SPS and Codex Model.

Bringing Trade Negotiators to the SSBs: Should the WTO Join the FSF? -- Concluding Remarks -- Endnotes -- References -- 4 Regulatory Discrimination in Domestic United States Law: A Model for the GATS? -- Executive Summary -- The United States Jurisprudence of "Free Trade" -- The Commerce Clause -- Discrimination -- Nondiscriminatory Measures -- "Burdensome" Regulation -- The Weighted Balancing Test and Least Restrictive Alternatives -- Trade in Services under the American Constitution -- Commerce Clause -- Privileges and Immunities Clause -- Legal Standards and the Emergence of National Markets in the United States -- Comparative Analysis -- The Analytical Schema -- The Commerce Clause and the Economic Principles of Free Trade -- Lessons from the American Approach -- Conclusion -- Endnotes -- References -- 5 Lessons for the Gats from Existing WTO Rules on Domestic Regulation -- Executive Summary -- Lessons for Services Trade Negotiations from the SPS, TBT, and GATT Agreements -- Comparison of the Disciplines of the SPS, TBT, and GATT with the Disciplines of the GATS -- Nondiscrimination: National Treatment and MFN -- GATT Article III.4 -- SPS -- TBT -- GATS -- Necessity/Least Trade-Restrictive Alternative/Proportionality -- GATT XX(b) and (d) -- TBT Agreement -- SPS Agreement -- GATS Proportionality -- Nullification or Impairment and the Necessity Test under Article VI.5 -- Nullification or Impairment -- The Necessity Test -- Recognition and Necessity -- Other Requirements of Harmonization -- GATT -- SPS and TBT -- GATS on Harmonization -- Conformity with International Standards: Rules and Standards -- Adjudication at WTO and Legislation Elsewhere -- SPS -- TBT -- GATT -- GATS -- Rules and Standards: Relating Legislative Capacity to Judicial Scrutiny -- Appropriate Level/Scientific Basis/Regulation of Regulatory Goals -- Internal Consistency.

Precautionary Principle -- Balancing -- Recognition/Equivalence -- Product-Process Issues and Extraterritorial Protection Issues -- GATT -- SPS -- TBT -- GATS, the Product-Process Distinction, and Territoriality -- Conclusion -- Endnotes -- References -- PART 3 Sectoral Perspectives -- 6 Domestic Regulation and Trade in Telecommunications Services: Experience and Prospects Under the GATS -- Executive Summary -- Brief Background to the Negotiation of Existing GATS Obligations in Telecommunications -- Summary of GATS Disciplines on Telecom Regulation -- GATS Annex on Telecommunications -- Reference Paper on Procompetitive Regulatory Principles -- Impact of GATS Disciplines on Domestic Regulation -- Scope for Further Competition Safeguards and Regulatory Disciplines in Telecommunications Trade -- Transparency -- Licensing -- Interconnection and Unbundling -- Definitions of PTTNS and Basic Telecoms -- Independent Regulator -- Universal Service Obligations -- Relevance of GATS Telecom Regulatory Disciplines for the Regulation of Other Network Services -- Conclusion -- Endnotes -- References -- 7 Gats Regulatory Disciplines Meet Global Public Goods: The Case of Transportation Services -- Executive Summary -- Transportation and the GATS -- The Negotiations to Date -- Maritime Transport Services -- Air Transport Services -- Regulatory Disciplines for Skeletal Commitments -- Classification of Regulatory Barriers to Trade in Transportation -- Balancing Private Market Access against the Provision of Public Goods -- The Fiendish Difficulty -- The Twisted Interpretation? -- The Enlightening Comparisons -- The Reference Paper on Regulatory Principles -- Disciplines on Domestic Regulations in the Accountancy Sector -- The TBT and SPS Agreements -- Conclusion -- Afterword -- Endnotes -- References -- 8 Regulatory Reform and Trade Liberalization in Financial Services.

Executive Summary -- Changes in the Financial Services Industries -- Globalization and Regulatory Reform -- Technological Advances -- Changing Industry Structures -- Changing Competitive Structures -- Implications for Regulation and Competition Policy -- The Standards-based Approach -- Revisiting the Approaches -- Special Nature of Banks -- Consumer and Investor Protection -- Global Public Policy Changes -- Prudential Regulation and Competition Policy -- Institutional Approach to Competition Policy -- Functional Approach to Competition Policy -- Beyond the Institutional and Functional Approaches -- Production Approach to Competition Policy -- Dimensions of Market Infrastructure and Recent Changes -- Competition Effects -- The Telecommunications Model for Competition Policy -- Developing Country Considerations -- Stages of Financial Liberalization -- Required Supervision and Other Constraints -- Promotion of Financial Stability -- Developing Countries and Competition Policy -- The Role of the GATS and the WTO -- Conclusion -- Endnotes -- References -- 9 Regulatory Reform and Trade Liberalization in Accountancy Services -- Executive Summary -- The Accountancy Sector -- Accountancy and the World Trade Organization: Progress to Date -- Uruguay Round Outcomes -- Developments Since the Creation of the WTO -- The Working Party on Professional Services -- New Services Negotiations -- Experiences of Regulatory Reform and Trade Liberalization in the Accountancy Sector -- European Union Accountancy Framework -- Standardization Efforts at the International Level -- Audit Networks: An Industry Response to Its Regulatory Environment -- Regulatory Reform: What Are the Prospects? -- Understanding the Regulation of the Sector -- Dealing with These Issues at the WTO-What Are the Chances of Success? -- Determining a Need for an International Regulatory Framework.

Conclusion.