GATS COMMITMENTS AND LIBERALIZATION OF THE SPORTS SERVICE INDUSTRY: WTO COMPLIANCE AND POLICY CHALLENGES

The GATS has brought significant alterations to the liberalization process of the services sector worldwide it encompassing the sports service industry. The sports service industry is the individual who administers and delivers a myriad of services related to professional and amateur sports, and includes event management, athlete training, distribution, arena operations, and overseas service in the entertainment and economic industry. It is essential to realize how GATS commitments arise when focusing on sports services because the sports industry contributes greatly to the world development of the economy, trade liberalization strategies, and facilitation of cross-border services. At this point, researchers have not conducted much research on how the sports service sector fulfills GATS commitments using the procedures of compliance with WTO and policy implementation. This research gap study is relevant in the process of trying to set export policies on sports services that are appropriate to their exclusive nature. The research highlights the novel insights into the different versions of the application of GATS to the countries of the WTO, as well as the discrepancies between the international policy requirements and the national laws. The author attempts to address this research gap using GATS regulations and sports services industries to conduct research into the domestic policy management and compliance with the WTO issues faced by nations. The methodology to be used to analyse documents used in this study is a qualitative approach based on a systematic literature review (SLR). The results demonstrate that the little liberalization of the sports services industry in the GATS principles and tension between the trade requirements and local policy guidelines and different practices of GATS commitment follow-up by WTO members. The findings reveal that governments need to formulate special policies that combine the global market liberalization trends and the nature of the sports services sector in the course of achieving international commitments and national interests.