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The WTO debates on GATS and its four modes

GATS is widely debated in the WTO. Progress in request-
offer talks under GATS has been relatively slow too.

One major reason is the intrusive nature of GATS
on government policy-making space in the area of services.
This is particularly true for Mode 3, which is seen as another

agreement on investments, for the whole idea is to secure for
service suppliers from a trade partner “commercial presence”

in another country. Modes 1 and 2 are hardly debated, for it
is obvious that cross-border supply, facilitated today by the
wonders of the information-communication-technology (ICT),

and cross-border consumption are realities in the modern
world. However, providing service in another country by asking

the latter to open up in the name of global market opening
and other WTO rules is clearly invasive. And yet, Mode 3 is
estimated by the WTO and other proponents as accounting

for over 60 per cent of all trade in services.

Trade unions and civil society organizations (CSOs)

are generally apprehensive and critical of Mode 3 because
liberalization in services such as education, health care and

basic services that governments are supposed to provide to their
citizens on a guaranteed basis usually lead to the privatization,
deregulation and corporatization of these services. In addition,

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