Solicitors warned to play active role in GATS negotiations

Solicitors were last week warned to take an active role in the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) General Agreements on Trade and Services (GATS) - the global trade agreements which aim to liberalise professional practice across the world.

Addressing delegates, Professor Laurel Terry of the Dickinson School of Law at Penn State University, warned that although GATS will affect domestic and international legal services, 'not many lawyers know about it'.

She said the agreements are reaching an important stage.

An official 'offer' relating to liberalising services in EU countries is scheduled to be made at the end of March - the EU negotiates the GATS on behalf of member states.

In return, the EU makes demands of other countries, and legal services is one of the heads of agreement.

'Lawyers should recognise this as an opportunity,' Professor Terry said.

Joo Aguiar Machado, the head of the services unit in the European Commission's trade directorate and a key negotiator in the GATS, said: 'Real progress should be possible in the GATS because everyone wins.'

He said a successful agreement would increase exports for the developed world, but also facilitate international trade, creating an 'investment-friendly' environment for developing countries.

He added that open professional services regimes are vital for developing countries wishing to encourage foreign direct investment, because they indicate a competitive economy, and 'many developers are not worried about having a commercial presence on the ground so long as they have good professional services there'.

He said liberalisation of legal services was less straightforward than that of other professions because of fears among some of the WTO's 144 member states that foreign lawyers would be able to practise in their courts.

But he said this was not necessary.

Lord Chancellor's Department minister Baroness Scotland of Asthal QC said: 'The GATS will represent a significant change in practice, but it is important that we rise to the challenge.'