Executive Summary

Articles XVI and XVII of the General Agreement on Trade in Services, which is administered by the WTO, contain important obligations regarding market access and national treatment for the services sector of the international economy. Obviously, the services sector can involve many distinct and varied sorts of business entities active in the international energy industry, thus making familiarity with the market access and national treatment obligations essential. Any full understanding of these obligations, however, requires reference to the country specific Schedules that accompany member state accession to the General Agreement on Trade in Services. The objective of this paper is to examine the Schedules of Brazil and Indonesia, mid-level and lower-level producer states from among the world’s top twenty largest crude oil producing countries. The focus is on just three sectors—transport by pipeline, consultative and advisory engineering services, and management consulting and project management—to illustrate the operation of the Schedules in regard to the international energy industry, and call attention to some of the complexities in construing the terms and provisions of Schedules in general.