Stop the GATS power play!

PSI led an intensive lobbying process during the recent round of GATS negotiations in Geneva. Along with other global unions and NGOs we met with a dozen delegations who were engaged in services negotiations: the USA and EU, Brazil, India, South Africa, Malaysia, Venezuela, Chile, Thailand, Indonesia, Mexico and Rwanda.

Earlier, in an unprecedented display of unity, more than 150 unions and NGOs had sent a joint statement to all WTO member states, and the WTO itself, calling on them to reconsider their role in the current GATS negotiations. The group felt it was indefensible to proceed with the negotiations in the name of development. “This process is fraudulent, flawed and deeply unfair. Access to essential services and the livelihoods of millions of people in the developing world are at stake,” said Hans Engelberts, PSI General Secretary.

“If these negotiations do not proceed on more development-friendly terms, we call   upon developing countries to withdraw. Access to essential services and the livelihoods of millions of people in the developing world are at stake,” says Hans Engelberts, General Secretary of Public Services International (PSI), the global federation of public sector trade unions.

“Enormous pressure is being brought to bear on developing countries to open their service markets to powerful foreign-based, for-profit corporations from the industrialized countries. This process is fraudulent, flawed and deeply unfair”, says Hans Engelberts.

Forty developing countries and 32 less-developed countries are being told to open up their finance, energy, environment, water, tourism, distribution and transportation services to foreign market forces. Big business lobby machines like the U.S. Coalition of Service Industries and the European Services Forum are pushing hard for developing countries to make commitments now – without democratic mandate. These commitments are socially irresponsible. What’s worse, they are effectively irreversible.

The statement outlines a number of concerns dealing with deregulation, investment policies, employment impacts, and the dangers of privatisation that GATS could lock in for the future. “Consider what happened when Argentina allowed an essential service like water/waste water to be taken over by the global water giant, Suez. The Argentineans experienced rising rates, broken promises for expanded services, and the construction of a new treatment plant that dumped raw sewage into the Rio de la Plata,” says the statement.

The group makes a number of demands aimed at allowing developing countries to regain and retain ownership of their trade and services policies.

The statement and a list of signatories (still growing) can be viewed below. To sign up to the statement, send the name of your organisation and a contact person to: astrickner@iatp.org

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