A Study Of The Liberalization Of The Presence Of Natural Person Under GATS Framework

The presence of natural person was brought to discuss in the Uruguay Round ofGATS for the first time, which established the international framework of Mode4. Itsopenness helps to come to an agreement and brings many divergences among parties.Until now, the level of liberalizing of mode4is the lowest one of all GATS modes.Reasons causing this dilemma are those defects in GATS framework, trade barriers anddifferent policies among parties.With the promotion of the globalization and GATS, economic benefits contained inthe liberalizing of presence of natural person have been held in common. The issue ofliberalizing of Mode4in the trade negotiations is still in trouble. Developed countries arenot willing to open the market access and give citizen treatment to Mode4, anddeveloping countries can not bring forward attractions to allure them to do so. At presentthe compromise of Mode4negotiation is still a long way to go.Outside the framework of GATS, regional trade conventions, such as ASEAN andOEPC, whose beneficial make their framework open enough to achieve furthercompleteness, IGOs, such as IMO and ILO, who are striving to liberalize Mode4thoughinternational labor standards and related conferences, and countries, who use theirflexibility to liberalize the international market access of Mode4spare no effort.The Mode4of China rely on commercial presence, its main form is labor serviceexport, service providers are low-level workers who are spread on labor-intensiveindustries; many of service providers import of China is high-level workers, on a smallscale. The main obstacles are absence of domestic law, defects of framework of presenceof natural person, and trade barriers of market access. To unlimited the obstructions ofpresence of natural person, China should take an active part in the GATS negotiations,cooperate with IGOs, work harder to promote bilateral cooperation; on the domestic pointof view, we should adjust the framework of Mode4, optimize the management system,and overcome the trade barriers of Mode4. Only in this way, can we make a beneficial tryand a reasonable scheme of international and domestic law to promote the progress of theliberalizing movement of natural persons.