International Bar Association Issues Guide to International Trade Agreements

International Bar Association Issues Guide to International Trade Agreements

The International Bar Association (IBA) has published an updated edition of the IBA Guide to International Trade Agreements for IBA Member Bars (IBA GATS Handbook) to reflect the significant shift that has occurred in the international trade landscape in the intervening decade since the release of the 2013 edition.

The updated guide aims to held the legal professionals to understand General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) – a treaty of the World Trade Organization (WTO) that entered into force in 1995 – and of the consequences of other free trade agreements that have been signed on a bilateral or regional basis.

As with prior editions, the latest IBA GATS Handbook strives to provide practical assistance to Bars to distinguish and respond to, the international trade agreements signed by their respective governments of which there have been several developments, both within and outside of the WTO, that affect trade in legal services at both national and international levels.

The latest edition of the IBA GATS Handbook is based on research carried out by the IBA Bar Issues Commission’s International Trade in Legal Services Committee (IBA BIC ITILS) between November 2022 and January 2023.

The co-authors are Alison Hook, Co-Founder of Hook Tangaza, a legal sector research and advisory consultancy and member of the IBA Section on Professional and Public Interest advisory board; Laurel Terry, Professor of Law Emerita, Penn State Dickinson Law, and Communications Officer of the IBA Anti-Money Laundering and Sanctions Expert Subcommittee; and Jonathan Goldsmith, international legal services consultant and member of the IBA BIC Policy Committee.

To assist lawyers and Bars in navigating the complexity of the current international trade terrain, the updated GATS Handbook is divided into four detailed parts:

1. Part I provides a high-level policy context and overview of key trade in legal services concepts and practical tips on how Bars can engage with policymakers on trade in legal services issues.

2. Part II sets out the international trade legal framework that governs trade in legal services for all WTO members.

3. Part III provides key scenarios in which Bars may find themselves in relation to international trade in legal services negotiations, notably bilateral or regional trade agreements, and provides guidance on the notable differences in process that may characterize these different scenarios.

4. Part IV summarizes how the IBA has been assisting its Member Bars on trade in legal services matters and links to IBA resources.

Co-Author Alison Hook remarked: “The latest trade agreements being negotiated are unrecognizable from the past. The most ambitious include extensive chapters on regulatory cooperation, joint policy initiatives and cooperation in international rule-making bodies. This, along with the fact that the digital revolution is changing how cross-border trade in legal services is being done, means that Bars need to be on top of what is going on in this area or risk being side-lined.”

Mickaël Laurans, Chair of the IBA BIC ITILS Committee, commented, “The IBA GATS Handbook has been the go-to resource for Bars and law societies having to consider the challenges of cross-border trade in legal services. Our three authors, Alison Hook, Laurel Terry and Jonathan Goldsmith, have done us an immense service in updating the guide to reflect the realities of today’s international trade.”

In 2022, the global value of the legal services sector was estimated to be close to US $1 trillion.

All countries, to some degree have legal services trade. With governments signing new free trade agreements with other countries regularly, currently there are more than 356 bilateral and regional trade agreements in force involving every region of the world.