The GATS is the first ever agreement of multilateral, legally-
enforceable rules covering international trade in services. It
was negotiated in the Uruguay Round. GATS has three elements:
the main text containing general obligations and disciplines;
annexes dealing with rules for specific sectors; and individual
countries specific commitments to provide access to their
markets, including indications of where countries are
temporarily not applying the most-favoured-nation principle of
non-discrimination. These commitments like tariff schedules for
trade in goods are an integral part of the agreement. So are the
temporary withdrawals of most-favoured-nation treatment. General
obligations and disciplines back to top The agreement covers all
internationally-traded services for example, banking,
telecommunications, tourism, professional services, etc. The
agreement also defines four ways of trading - services supplied
from one country to another (e.g. international telephone
calls), officially known as - consumers