The Scope of Services Chapters and Regulatory Autonomy Constraints from Unconditional Obligations in Selected EU RTAs
This report first identifies and selects three case studies for this report and the underlying research track. They are the EU-Colombia & Peru, EU-Singapore and EU-Georgia RTAs. The report then introduces a (rebuttable) presumption in favour of WTO consistent interpretation of the provisions of the services chapters of these EU RTAs. Subsequently, the report addresses the scope of the selected RTAs, finding that it is wider than the already wide scope of GATS. Finally, the report assesses constraints on regulatory autonomy from the unconditional obligations in these chapters. These are: (i) transparency obligations, (ii) obligations related to monopolies and exclusive service suppliers, (iii) obligations related to current and capital transactions, and (iv) several GATS-X obligations