Regional Free Trade Agreements

Abstract

This chapter examines the non-discrimination obligations in regional trade agreements drawing on provisions from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the ASEAN–Australia–New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA) and the newly negotiated Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) for examples. This chapter also examines the interface between the tax treatment of service providers and non-discrimination obligations assumed under these regional trade agreements and trade obligations assumed by the signatories under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (the GATS) and under bilateral tax treaties within each free trade region. The purpose of the discussion is firstly to outline the non-discrimination obligations that apply to non-resident service providers in areas other than taxation in these regional free trade agreements and also to demonstrate that there are significant differences in the non-discrimination obligations to which the signatories are subject within these small free trade zones even in similar circumstances.