Financial Services Trade After the Crisis: Policy and Legal Conjectures

20 Pages Posted: 1 Sep 2010

See all articles by Panos Delimatsis

Panos Delimatsis

Tilburg Law and Economics Center (TILEC); Tilburg Law School

Pierre Sauvé

University of Bern - World Trade Institute

Date Written: August 31, 2010

Abstract

The financial crisis of 2008-09 has cast palpable doubt on the relevance of the current legal framework governing trade in services for financial crisis prevention and management. The crisis revealed the limited utility and effectiveness of services trade law in dealing adequately with the trade-related regulatory fallout from the financial upheaval and the potentially distortive measures taken to mitigate its effects. Even as the crisis had little to do with trade policy as a contributing factor, such a statement still leaves unanswered the question of whether services trade law can or should play a more critical role in shaping the post-crisis financial architecture. The paper posits a number of trade-related policy and legal ramifications flowing from the financial crisis and its resolution. The post-crisis period affords a unique opportunity to clarify the scope of GATS law in financial services; establish with greater precision the remit of the prudential carve-out; and complete long stalled rule-making journeys on the key outstanding GATS disciplines of necessity and subsidies without which the law of services trade runs the very genuine risk of remaining a construct more theoretical than real.

Keywords: WTO, GATS, financial crisis, financial services, prudential carve-out, subsidies in services

JEL Classification: F02, F13, F23, F36, F42, F53, G01, G15, G18, G38, K33

Suggested Citation

Delimatsis, Panagiotis and Sauvé, Pierre, Financial Services Trade After the Crisis: Policy and Legal Conjectures (August 31, 2010). TILEC Discussion Paper No. 2010-032, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1669264 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1669264

Panagiotis Delimatsis (Contact Author)

Tilburg Law and Economics Center (TILEC) ( email )

Warandelaan 2
Postbus 90153
Tilburg, NL-5000 LE
Netherlands
0031 13 466 8251 (Phone)
0031 13 466 8047 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.tilburguniversity.edu/staff/p-delimatsis

Tilburg Law School ( email )

Warandelaan 2
Postbus 90153
Tilburg, 5000 LE
Netherlands

HOME PAGE: http://https://www.tilburguniversity.edu/staff/p-delimatsis

Pierre Sauvé

University of Bern - World Trade Institute

Hallerstrasse 6
Berne, 3012
Switzerland

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