In the tide of recent economic globalization, the global economic policies seem to create enabling environments for the free flow of goods, services, capital and technology. But, in contrast, movement of labour, even as a service provider, is rather prevented by administrative, legal and institutional barriers by nation states--although it has emerged as an essential component of trade inservices. Some developed countries are adopting policies such as increasing visa restrictions, residency requirements, occupational licensing, health conditions and other restrictive measures making movement of labour difficult. Now , the issue of movement of service provider has been incorporated in GATS. But because of the objection of the developed countries, WTO Members' commitments for mode 4 are very restricted compare to their commitments for the other 3 modes and the negotiations on mode 4 failed to produce any substantive progress in liberalization of movement of natural persons. The free flow of goods, capital and services across borders on one hand, and restricted labour mobility on the other, are certainly creating asymmetries and distortions in the global economy. Meanwhile, because the developing countries including China only have a comparative advantage of labour in trade in services, the current restrictive and limited implementation of mode 4 as opposed to the other three modes will further aggravate the asymmetries in the GATS implementation process, thus widening the gaps between the developed and the developing countries. For the coming GATS negotiations to be successful, interests of both the developed and the developing countries should be realized in the process. In general, the issue of movement of natural persons will be of core interest to any future GATS negotiation in a new round.This paper is divided into five parts.Part I, therefore, after reviewing the history of Uruguay Round negotiations onMONP, elaborates on legal boundary of MONP under GATSand its defections .Meanwhile, it briefly introduces the regulations on MONP of RTAs and other regulations related to MONP under the GATS framework.Part II mainly generalizes the horizontal commitments of 100 WTO Members that made commitments for MONP. It analyses the overall characters of commitments for MONP firstly, then elaborates on the major restrictions and constraints on MONP included in above-mentioned commitments. Finally, it introduces the outcomes of ongoing negotiations on MONP in a new round.Part III focuses on a number of relevant issues on international legal obligations of WTO Members that commit temporary entry and.stay of natural persons. Those issues include the legal protection of domestic labour markets, the regulation of "the brain drain",the precaution of maltreating visa systems, the legal reservation of WTO Members' flexibility to regulate MONP according to their needs and so forth.Part IV chiefly discusses how to improve the legal mechanism for better MONP. The relevant legal strategies are improving the effectivity of existing commitments, further expanding the scope of market access, eliminating or restricting the application of the barriers to MONP and implementing relevant moderating measures, etc.Part V begins with analyzing the dynamic factors of MONP in our country in brief, then largely discusses the exiting picture of Chinese export trade on MONP and of Chinese GATS commitments for MONP. In the last, it puts forward several legal recommendations on how to improve Chinese trade on MONP. |