ASEAN trade in service

• Main Author: HSIEH, Pasha L.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2018
• Subjects: Asian Studies; Transnational Law
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/2739
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This chapter provides an up-to-date overview of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) trade in services. It discusses the legal framework governing services negotiations and commitments. Signed in 1995, the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Services (AFAS) provided a legal basis for ASEAN’s services negotiations. The AFAS adopts a successive package structure, under which schedules of services commitments arising from subsequent rounds of negotiations “form an integral part of” the AFAS. The chapter explores the movement of skilled labor by explaining the progress of the ASEAN Agreement on the Movement of Natural Persons (ASEAN MNP Agreement) and the mutual recognition arrangements. The ASEAN MNP Agreement encompasses four categories of natural persons, including intra-corporate transferees, business visitors, contractual service providers and other categories as defined in schedules of commitments. The chapter offers regulatory reform proposals for intensifying services integration according to the goal of the ASEAN Economic Community.