Sunday, September 4, 2016

Natens: Regulatory Autonomy and International Trade in Services: The EU Under GATS and RTAs

Bregt Natens (Sidley Austin LLP) has published Regulatory Autonomy and International Trade in Services: The EU Under GATS and RTAs (Edward Elgar Publishing 2016). Here's the abstract:
This book considers how the interplay between multilateral and preferential liberalisation of trade in services increasingly raises concerns, both from the perspective of the beneficiaries of such liberalisation (whose rights are uncertain) and that of regulators (whose regulatory autonomy is constrained). The author shows how these concerns lead to vast underutilisation of, and strong prejudices against, the benefits of services liberalisation. The book meticulously analyses and compares the EU's obligations under the GATS and the services chapters of several RTAs to finally assess the merits of the raised concerns.