The Temporary Movement of Service Sector Workers After Brexit

While public discussion on Brexit has focused much more on goods than services, the latter is actually of equal and crucial interest in the Brexit negotiations. Internationally, UK is one of the countries that most clearly stands to benefit from further liberalization of global services trade. Such free trade in services is, however, not in sight. While tariffs between WTO members are at an historical low, services still face significant barriers when traded across the borders. This is especially true for the so-called Mode 4, which in WTO terms refers to the movement of people providing services (the first three modes referring to other forms of service provision). Mode 4 is one of the topics that the International Trade Committee of the UK House of Commons chose for analysis in its inquiry concerning UK trade in services, launched in November 2018. The author appeared as a witness in an oral evidence session regarding Mode 4 on 26 June 2019. This blog post focuses on the key issues that were raised in the session.