This article asks why the United Kingdom made a slightly below–the–EU–average offer on the free movement of persons as part of the first EU offer to the GATS 2003, but then in 2004 chose not to limit the free movement of labour from the new Member States of the EU as most other ‘old’ Member States did. The main argument is that the policy choices reflect the aim of the UK government to retain flexibility in and external sovereign control over labourlabour immigration policies. This allows it to maintain flexible labour markets within the UK and the extended EU Internal Market.
Journal of World Trade