The conclusion of the Uruguay Round, in 1994, significantly reformed the World Trading system. Besides strengthening the system of the GATT, it established the WTO as a framework for regulating the liberalisation of international trade, the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), and the trade related aspects on intellectual property rights (TRIPS) agreement.

This section is to provide European service companies that export their services to a WTO member country with information on the legally binding situation of their trading partners.

In case you are facing any uncertainties or problems regarding the access to a certain country’s market

• consult the Uruguay Round Schedules of Committments to recieve a comprehensive overview of your trading partner’s WTO obligations in the respective services sectors. We have downloaded these schedules from the WTO website.
• You can also download the schedules directly from the WTO website. Choose the country for which you require all the commitments and exemptions in the middle of the WTO page.
• ESF also drafted a specific document on the WTO member states’ Uruguay Round Mode 4 GATS committments.
• consult the EC ‘s Market Access Database for further assistance. This database allows you finding information on trade barriers in services. Please consider that the information provided is very limited.