Plain Language Guide to GATS Negotiations on Domestic Regulation

Imagine if your national legislature prepared to adopt a law that would limit regulation of services that are essential for economic development, limit the authority of subnational states or provinces to regulate services, require governments at all levels (cities included) to publish detailed information about most existing laws that regulate services, and empower foreign governments (and perhaps even foreign investors) to challenge domestic regulations outside of domestic courts.

Such a law would spark intense public debate.  But in the distant forum of World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations, a complex proposal to achieve these results has received little notice.