The EU’s “Global Europe” Strategy and the Liberalization of Trade in Legal Services: The Impact of the EU Free Trade Agreements in Asia

Abstract

The past two decades have witnessed remarkable developments in terms of the globalization of the world’s economies. As a result the legal services, which form a vital part of the infrastructure that underpins world commerce, have experienced continuous growth over the last ten years. However, foreign lawyers face restrictions in many jurisdictions. In most instances trade agreements are used to negotiate the removal of these limitations. Until recently to the exception of the EU and the NAFTA, the liberalization of trade in services took place within the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). The last decade has seen a proliferation of Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs), which contain such liberalizations. Since 2006 the EU has been negotiating PTAs with strategic trade partners. This paper aims to analyze the consequences of the PTAs that the EU has been negotiating with five Asian countries on the liberalization of trade in legal services in light of the EU’s new trade strategy and the GATS.