A member nation must administer its domestic regulation of a particular service sector in a reasonable, objective and impartial manner. Qualifications, licensing requirements and technical standards must be transparent, objective and not more burdensome than necessary to ensure the quality of the service. A member nation must make its measures public, must establish avenues for enquiry about their regulations and must respond promptly to requests for information about regulations. The schedule of commitments for each country is a very important part of the GATS because it sets out what rules each country is willing to accept and with what exceptions. For example, a country may decide that, with respect to environmental services, it will only allow trade where companies establish a commercial presence in that country.
Trade negotiations are almost always reciprocal.
Whenever one country decides that it will limit access to foreign service providers, other countries will likely reciprocate. Countries may have valid reasons for limiting outsiders' access. However, in doing so, they are also probably limiting opportunities for their own service providers in foreign markets. One of the areas of the GATS negotiations is professional services, such as accounting, engineering, architecture and law. These have been adopted by the Council for Trade in Services but have no legal effect until disciplines for other professions are drafted and approved through the GATS negotiations.