GATT

This is the agreement on trade in services. GATS which forms part of the WTO agreements. The preceding GATT did not have any agreement dealing with services. At that time, until the 1990s, there was not much trade in services. But over the last three decades, trade in services has grown very substantially. GATS covers four kinds of trade in services. Mode 1 - Cross-border supply. Indian supply of IT and call center services to USA, EU or other countries is a good example of cross-border supply of a service. Mode 2 - Consumption abroad, such as tourism or international events, such as the Olympics or the Cricket and Football World Cups. Mode 3 - Commercial presence. This is where a supplying company sets up an overseas branch to supply the services, as in banks (Citibank or Standard Chartered in India; or State Bank of India in the USA) or insurance companies (Lombard in India). Mode 4 - presence of a natural person as opposed to a corporate person. This in simple language is migration.