Trade in services was brought into the world negotiating agenda in the early 1990s. Since the entry into force of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994 and the World Trade Organization in 1995, countries have engaged in active negotiations in this area, both regionally and bilaterally. Latin American countries have been particularly active in this process, having negotiated 20 percent of PTAs covering trade in goods and 47 percent of those dealing with trade in services that have been notified to the WTO. Chile and Mexico stand out, having notified to the WTO ten and nine agreements covering trade in services, respectively.

Although the economic literature has addressed trade agreements in goods extensively, both theoretically and empirically, less attention has been devoted to the economic effects of trade agreements in services. In recent years, new research has emerged regarding the increasing number of PTAs covering trade in services. Their main focus has been the study of the content and structure of services chapters of PTAs, the relationship between PTAs and Article V of the GATS, and an assessment of the extent to which preferential agreements have been more effective in promoting liberalization than the WTO (Fink and Molinuevo, 2007; Roy, Marchetti, and Lim, 2007; Marconini, 2006; Sáez, 2005c; OECD, 2002; Stephenson, 2002; Mattoo and Fink, 2002; Prieto and Stephenson, 1999).

Chile's experience with services negotiations is extensive. For more than a decade Chile has been negotiating services obligations as part of its free trade agreements.