[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [StopWTORound] GLOBAL UNIONS / ETUC / WCL / STATEMENT ON THE GATS NEGOTIATIONS (fwd)

[Alfred Kagan]

This seems a very important statement.

>Delivered-To: akagan at alexia.lis.uiuc.edu
>From: Tom_Childs at douglas.bc.ca
>Date: Wed, 12 Jun 2002 08:36:10 -0700
>Subject: [StopWTORound] GLOBAL UNIONS / ETUC / WCL / STATEMENT ON THE GATS
>  NEGOTIATIONS (fwd)
>To: mai-list at moon.bcpl.gov.bc.ca
>Sender: owner-mai-list at moon.bcpl.gov.bc.ca
>Status:  
>
>   ----- Forwarded message: -----
>To: GATScrit at yahoogroups.com, StopWTORound at yahoogroups.com,
>         Wto-intl at lists.citizen.org
>From: "Erik Wesselius" <erik at corporateeurope.org>
>Date: Wed, 12 Jun 2002 16:48:09 +0200
>Subject: [StopWTORound] GLOBAL UNIONS / ETUC / WCL /
>		STATEMENT ON THE GATS NEGOTIATIONS
>
>I forward this exciting statement by Global Unions (*), the European
>Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the the World Confederation of
>Labour (WCL), which was issued last week and which I received today.
>
>Erik Wesselius
>GATSwatch
>
>(*) Members of Global Unions are:
>- Education International,
>- International Confederation of Free Trade Unions,
>- International Federation of Building and Wood Workers,
>- International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General
>Workers' Union,
>- International Federation of Journalists,
>- International Metalworkers' Federation,
>- International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation,
>- International Transport Workers' Federation,
>- International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant,
>Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Association,
>- Public Services International
>
>Issued 7 June 2002
>GLOBAL UNIONS / ETUC / WCL / STATEMENT ON THE GATS NEGOTIATIONS
>
>Trade in services comprises a huge share of total world output and
>employs hundreds of millions of workers.  A key objective of an
>increase in trade in services should be to provide benefits for the
>users of services and for those employed in this sector and indeed in
>other sectors as well. However, there are growing fears that the
>present negotiations under the General Agreement on Trade in Services
>(GATS) could jeopardise access to vital public services and to other
>services of general interest for a large part of the world's
>population. These services are too crucial to human well-being to be
>subject to private sector competition under WTO disciplines. Global
>Unions, the WCL, and the ETUC are calling for action in the following
>areas:
>
>1. All parties to the current GATS negotiations should make it
>absolutely clear that public services (above all, education, health
>and essential public utilities) including at sub-national levels of
>government, and socially beneficial service sector activities are not
>a subject for negotiation.  This would mean that the parties would
>not call on other governments to open up those sectors.  To guarantee
>that this will remain the case, the next WTO Conference should amend
>as necessary the terms of the GATS agreement to exclude formally such
>sectors from all further GATS negotiations. 
>
>2. WTO agreements should not undermine the ability of governments to
>enact domestic regulations, legislation and other measures to
>safeguard the public interest.  However, under present WTO rules,
>such measures could be subject to challenge at the WTO if they are
>perceived as constituting a form of trade discrimination.  Explicit
>reference to the primacy of social and environmental concerns over
>the principle of 'free trade'  as well as a fundamental revision or
>even removal of the 'necessity test' on regulations is therefore
>required to ensure that all WTO members have complete freedom to
>execute domestic regulatory measures without the possibility of
>challenge through the WTO dispute settlement mechanism.
>
>3. Countries must not be obliged to privatise public services against
>their will.  Countries which make a commitment to open up their
>services sectors under the GATS must be able to take a future
>decision to increase the public sector role in these sectors, without
>any risk of a potential challenge through WTO disputes machinery or a
>need to offer some other services sector in compensation.  The GATS
>agreement should include an explicit clause to exempt GATS
>commitments from the WTO disputes machinery in all cases where the
>public sector is concerned, so that foreign service suppliers would
>be unable to seek to use WTO disciplines as a tool to maintain market
>access. In addition, GATS negotiations should include the possibility
>of applying temporary safeguard measures to prevent a domestic
>industry from collapse (as already exists in GATT). More generally,
>the WTO 'lock-in' principle that has the effect of making 
>commitments to open service markets 'irreversible' should not apply
>when the service market liberalisation has led to severe adverse
>socio-economic effects on the country and its population.
>
>4. Article I.3 (b) of GATS should be clarified to make it absolutely
>clear that 'the exercise of governmental authority' allows, without
>threat of legal challenge, WTO members to exclude competition from
>public services and services of general interest.
>
>5. WTO members should not open up other public services to
>international trade liberalisation:-  where that would create a
>problem of insecurity in supply of the services concerned; where it
>would negatively affect the supply of services to disadvantaged
>regions, sectors or groups of the population; or where it might
>reduce government funding  for other services (such as by undermining
>the principle of cross-subsidisation). Members should not submit
>requests for market-opening where it would lead to socially
>undesirable effects of this nature.
>
>6. Article XIX of the GATS requires, for each round of negotiations,
>"an assessment of trade in services in overall terms and on a
>sectoral basis".  Such an assessment has never been carried out.  A
>full assessment of the social, environmental and economic impact of
>the GATS negotiations should therefore be conducted urgently. The
>relevant specialised agencies of the United Nations, including the
>ILO, should be involved together with trade unions and other
>representative organisations.
>
>7. Regarding "Mode 3" of the GATS on 'commercial presence' (i.e.
>investment), GATS negotiations should:- ensure that the interests of
>developing countries are fully taken into account; omit any
>provisions that give investors the right to challenge tax and
>regulatory measures; exclude investor-to-state disputes provisions;
>include company taxation; allow for the imposition of performance
>requirements especially as regards labour market provisions; ensure
>that foreign investments (and incentives to attract them) do not
>undermine core labour standards or environmental protection; and
>include binding references to the ILO Tripartite Declaration of
>Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy,
>and to the revised OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.
>
>8. With regard to "Mode 4" (i.e. temporary cross-border movement of
>natural persons), negotiations should ensure:- protection of migrant
>workers against all forms of discrimination, and of the remittance of
>their contributions to social security and insurance schemes;
>observance of core international labour standards and national labour
>law; respect for existing collective agreements covering the sectors
>concerned; and the full involvement of the ILO.
>
>9. Finally, GATS negotiations are too important to the public
>interest to take place under conditions of secrecy and without the
>involvement of parliamentarians and social partners. To ensure the
>maximum of transparency and democratic involvement, WTO members
>should publish after the submission deadline the access "requests"
>they intend to make of other WTO members. Over the period leading up
>to March 2003, all WTO members should engage in a democratic process
>of dialogue concerning the "offers" they intend to submit, and after
>that deadline all offer lists should be published.
>
>Also available at:
><http://www.tuc.org.uk/international/tuc-4946-f0.cfm>
>
>
>
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-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu