Assumption 2. GATS Commitments Apply Only in Scheduled Sectors

The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) uses a positive-list approach to liberalisation. WTO Members commit to opening specific services sectors by scheduling them — listing the sectors where market access and national treatment obligations apply, along with any limitations they wish to retain.

This means the GATS does not liberalise trade in services generally. It creates binding obligations only in the sectors that a Member has specifically scheduled, subject to any limitations that Member has recorded. Where a sector is not in the schedule, no market access or national treatment obligations apply under the GATS.

New Zealand's Schedule of Specific Commitments lists the sectors in which New Zealand has undertaken obligations, organised under the standard GATS classification (the W/120 list, based on the UN Central Product Classification). Each entry specifies the mode of supply — cross-border supply, consumption abroad, commercial presence, or the presence of natural persons — and any limitations that apply. The Schedule is the starting point for this project's analysis.

For each scheduled sector, the chart maps which IP rights are relevant to the conditions of supply. Where a sector is not scheduled — or where limitations are recorded — the analysis notes this, because IP rules may affect that sector differently in the absence of binding trade disciplines.