Despite multiple efforts on the bilateral, regional and multilateral level to create uniform or at least harmonized rules for commercial operations and practices in the maritime transport sector and to liberalize maritime transport services by tearing down the barriers that exist in that sector, there is until today no global regime regulating (or rather deregulating) the supply of maritime transport services and ensuring open markets. In this situation, private economic actors are confronted with substantial legal uncertainty.

This book provides a detailed analysis of the history of maritime transport services in the Uruguay and post-Uruguay Round negotiations and the role of the sector in the ongoing Doha Round talks, where Member States have the opportunity to work towards a global regime ensuring the progressive liberalization of the sector. The reader will be confronted with an extensive overview of the role of  maritime transport services in the WTO/GATS framework, a topic basically uncovered in the literature so far.