• Restrictions on commercial presence - Restrictions on establishing a commercial presence remain in many countries because of the horizontal commitments of countries in the GATS service schedules. Restrictions include entry of foreign capital, domestic equity participation obligations, joint venture arrangements and other legislative and regulatory restrictions on foreign presence.
 • Restrictions on access to international maritime services - Restrictions on cargo allocation for particular routes, in accordance with bilateral and multilateral agreements, remain a prohibitive barrier to access to maritime services. The preferential treatment of shipping services providers from specific economies on the basis of bilateral agreements or other reasons raises the overall cost of shipping services. Restrictions for carrying government cargo on national flag vessels, with the exception of defense and national security cargoes, also serve to limit overall access to the provision of services. Finally, discriminatory tax regimes and port fees for foreign companies and foreign flagged vessels are contrary to the GATS doctrine of non-discrimination. 
• Non-tariff barriers in the maritime transport sector - Anti-competitive business practices raise costs to free and efficient trade. For example, practices such as unreasonable environmental and safety regulations, unfair vessel and cargo examinations and cumbersome port procedures excessively discriminate against foreign transport suppliers. • Competition policy in maritime transport sector - Price fixing and capacity sharing agreements of conference carriers that receive anti-trust exemption serve to restrict growth of new transport providers and control cost reduction movements.