The so-called Really Good Friends (RGF) club is a sub-group of members of the
World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation
in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and e ...
formed in 2012 to discuss the possibility of a services
liberalization
Liberalization or liberalisation (British English) is a broad term that refers to the practice of making laws, systems, or opinions less severe, usually in the sense of eliminating certain government regulations or restrictions. The term is used m ...
agreement. Most members of the 'Really Good Friends' group are top
global economies
The world economy or global economy is the economy of all humans of the world, referring to the global economic system, which includes all economic activities which are conducted both within and between nations, including production, consumption ...
which account for the bulk of
world trade, with the
EU and the US representing 40%.
The participating countries started crafting the proposed
Trade in Services Agreement
The Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) was a proposed international trade treaty between 23 Parties, including the European Union, United Kingdom and the United States. The agreement aimed at liberalizing the worldwide trade of services such as ...
in February 2012.
The original members of the RGF group were:
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Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
left the RGF Group and the following members joined in late 2012:
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References
External links
*{{cite web, last=Škoba, first=Laine, title=Trade in services: towards a plurilateral agreement, url=http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/bibliotheque/briefing/2013/130591/LDM_BRI(2013)130591_REV1_EN.pdf, work=Library Briefing, publisher=Library of the European Parliament, accessdate=17 July 2013
World Trade Organization
2012 in international relations