Environmental services trade liberalization within the general agreement on trade in services

The aim of this paper is to apply the rules and principles of international trade in services - in formulation of the General Agreement on Trade in Services - in the rapidly developing sphere of environmental services. The paper characterizes the development and structure of environmental services, the dimension of the environmental market of EU countries and discusses shortcomings in the existing classification of environmental services. Special attention is devoted to the different forms of private sector participation in environmental service markets. The final part examines the export potential of environmental services in the Czech Republic and analyzes the main obstacles to the future development of this sphere.