The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the current GATS negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO) require special attention from an environmental policy perspective. The GATS – which is both a trade and an investment agreement – may have potentially far reaching implications, amongst others for domestic policy choices relating to social and environmental objectives. This study reviews existing literature and conducts a first analysis of current key GATS provisions and new negotiating proposals from an environmental policy perspective. Based on this analysis, the study aims:
- to highlight currently identifiable environmental policy implications and problems of the GATS; and
- to suggest some preliminary policy recommendations from an environmental perspective.