This publication explores some of the issues surrounding the financial services negotiations, analyzes what is at stake, and assesses what WTO members have already achieved in previous negotiations. This study contains detailed tables, charts, and boxes to help the reader understand some of the characteristics of the financial services sector and appreciate the full benefits of its trade liberalization.--Publisher's description.
This paper analyzes the links between multilateral, and unilateral financial liberalization, the former represented by the General Agreements on Trade in Services (GATS). It provides an overview of the main features of the GATS and what the participants in banking and securities within its framework, and compares GATS liberalization with the actual state of liberalization of the participants’ financial sectors. The results suggest that in many countries multilaterally liberalized financial sector policies are more restrictive than the actual state of openness or development of financial sectors. Many emerging markets liberalized little under the GATS despite often well-developed financial markets, while the opposite was true in some less developed developing countries.
The World Trade Organization's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) sets out a framework and rules for the liberalization of international trade in services. Paragraph 2(a) of the GATS Annex on Financial Services is generally known as the Prudential Carve-Out (PCO). Notwithstanding GATS obligations, it allows WTO Members to pursue prudential regulatory objectives. This book studies the GATS PCO in light of its negotiating history and economic rationale as well as PCOs in all preferential trade agreements notified to the WTO Secretariat up to the summer of 2017. The author clarifies the state of play of international cooperation on financial services regulation; provides a current understanding of the GATS PCO; analyses how PCOs are drafted in preferential trade agreements and, finally, he seeks to understand whether alternative approaches to the mainstream understanding of the PCO are possible and suggests options for reform.
This book brings outstanding expertise and provides insightful perspectives from nineteen authors with diverse backgrounds, including officials from international organizations, national regulators, and commercial banking, as well as academics in law, economics, political economy, and finance. The authors not only shed light on the causes of the financial turmoil, but also present thoughtful proposals that contribute to the future policy debate, and discuss opportunities that financial services can offer in funding activities which raise standards of living through initiatives in microfinance, renewable energy, and food distribution. The contributions to this volume tackle several of the thorniest issues of financial regulation in a post-crisis environment, such as: the mechanics of contagion within the financial system and the role of liquidity; moral hazard when large financial institutions are no longer subject to the disciplinary effects of bankruptcy; bank capital requirements; management compensation; design of bank resolution schemes; a function-centric versus institution-centric regulatory approach; subsidization and compatibility of stimulus packages with EU rules on state aid; trade finance and the role of the GATS prudential carve-out; and the role of financial services in promoting human rights or combating climate change.
The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) ranks among the chief accomplishments of multilateral trade diplomacy at the end of the 20th century, but lies at the centre of the controversies surrounding trade policy at the start of the 21st. WTO negotiations in the services field resumed on 1 January 2000, as foreseen under the Uruguay Round's "built-in" agenda. As negotiations have progressed, the GATS has become the critical focus of civil society groups representing a wide range of interests. Arguments against the GATS concern principally the threat it is alleged to pose a threat to countries' Sovereign rights to regulate the production, sale, distribution or import of service activities and to supply services across borders.
This paper analyzes the links between multilateral, and unilateral financial liberalization, the former represented by the General Agreements on Trade in Services (GATS). It provides an overview of the main features of the GATS and what the participants in banking and securities within its framework, and compares GATS liberalization with the actual state of liberalization of the participants` financial sectors. The results suggest that in many countries multilaterally liberalized financial sector policies are more restrictive than the actual state of openness or development of financial sectors. Many emerging markets liberalized little under the GATS despite often well-developed financial markets, while the opposite was true in some less developed developing countries.
A Brookings Institution Press, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund publication The extensive reforms and liberalization of financial services in emerging markets worldwide call for cutting-edge strategies to capture the benefits of new investment opportunities. In Open Doors, a volume of papers from the third annual Financial Markets and Development conference, multidisciplinary financial sector experts analyze current economic and political trends and prescribe practical advice to the financial development community. The book addresses the key issues of concern regarding the emerging markets, including the trends, motivations, and scope of FDI in finance; policy options that will best capture the opportunities of foreign entry; and the role of foreign institutions in e-finance innovation. The authors focus on specific topics such as foreign participation in emerging market banking systems and securities industries, WTO policies and enforcement, the role of foreign banks, liberalization of insurance markets, the need for capital markets, and the policy, regulatory, and legal issues associated with e-finance. For policymakers and financial practitioners affected by the WTO's Financial Services Agreement, this timely book should be of particular interest. Contributors include Donald Mathieson (International Money Fund), Pierre Sauvé (Trade Directorate, OECD), George J. Vojta (formerly with Bankers Trust and Citibank), Harold D. Skipper (J. Mack Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University), Benn Steil (Council on Foreign Relations), Morris Goldstein and Edward M. Graham (Institute for International Economics), Nicolas Lardy (Brookings Institution), Phillip Turner (Bank of International Settlements), and Robert Ledig (Fried, Frank, Shriver & Jacobson).
This book fills a large gap in the literature on trade in services. It focuses on the dynamics of trade and investment liberalization in a sector of considerable technical and regulatory complexity financial services. This volume chronicles the recent experiences of governments in Latin America that have successfully completed financial services negotiations through preferential trade agreements. One of the unique features of this book is the three in-depth country case studies Chile, Colombia, and Costa Rica all written by trade experts who led the negotiations of their respective countries in financial services. The authors offer analytical insights into the substantive content of the legal provisions governing financial market opening and the way such provisions have evolved over time and across negotiating settings. The studies describe how each of the three governments organized the conduct of negotiations in the sector, the extent of preparatory work undertaken before and during negotiations, and the negotiating road maps that were put in place to guide negotiators. Additional chapters complement the case studies by examining the evolving architecture of trade and investment disciplines in financial services and how best to prepare for negotiations in this sector. 'Financial Services and Preferential Trade Agreements' aims to provide practical lessons for policy makers, trade experts, and negotiators in developing countries who are involved in negotiating trade in financial services in the context of regional trade agreements. Academics and development practitioners interested in trade negotiations will also find the information valuable.
