In the current World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations to liberalize trade in services, the European Community (EC) proposes a “proportionality test” for measure relating to technical regulation, licensing, and qualification requirements. In the same negotiations, Japan has recently proposed a Draft Annex on Domestic Regulation, which contains several differently formulated “necessity tests”, but nevertheless stops short of including a specific proportionality test.
This paper aims to assist policy-makers, both at the national and international levels, in making informed choices about whether to follow the EC proposal or the Japanese Draft for possible General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)disciplines on domestic regulation.