How will WTO Members engage in GATS negotiations?
WTO Members started submitting their initial GATS negotiating requests to other selected WTO Members on 30 June 2002. These requests specify the services sectors of their trading partners that they wish to see liberalized and the extent of GATS commitments that they wish their trading partners to undertake with respect to those sectors. However, WTO Members are under no legal obligation to make requests under the GATS negotiations to their trading partners. The submission of the initial offers, or responses, to those requests will commence on 31 March 2003. The WTO Members to whom requests have been made are not under any legal obligation to make any offers that directly correspond to the requests that they have received. In fact, they do not need to make any offers at all. However, as in the making of commitments, the existing power imbalances in the WTO and the economic pressures from developed countries can mean that developing countries will be effectively have to make offers that
