Posted by WTO Watch Qld on April 21, 2002 at 17:05:22:
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Information is dynamite.
Use the dynamite to blow GATS out of the water
[ATTAC] NEWSLETTER 124 - KILL THE SECRECY
Date: Wednesday, 17 April 2002 11:15
1) FOCUS ON GATS
a) Background
b) AFTINET media release
c) Article in Sydney Morning Herald
d) Article in the Guardian
e) Specific requests, the Guardian
f) Press release from the World Development Movement
g) Facing the Facts-a Guide to the GATS debate
2) COMING EVENTS
3) CALLS TO ACTION
a) Letters to the Minister for Trade and the Leader of the Opposition re World Water Treaty
b) Help wanted to compile list of GE free foods
===================================================
1) FOCUS ON GATS
a) WTO Watch Qld has recently welcomed many new readers to the mailing list. Existing readers will be well aware of the GATS and its controversial nature, but for the benefit of new readers, item ( g) at the end of the bulletin will give you the facts before you read on.
The GATS negotiations have reached the request-offer stage where each member country of the WTO is drawing up requests to be submitted to other members. These requests must be finalised by June 30th, 2002. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has not yet decided whether Australia's requests will be made public. But then, transparency, openness and accountability have never been attributes of the WTO and its systems.
The European Union has refused all requests to make its position public, but this week, the EU's requests to group 1 countries (the richer, larger ones) has been leaked. And the information is dynamite! The leaked document covers requests made to the rich and middle income countries : Argentina - AUSTRALIA - Brazil - Canada - Chile - China - Colombia - Egypt - Hong Kong, China - India - Indonesia - Israel - Japan - Korea - Malaysia - Mexico - New Zealand - Panama - Pakistan - Paraguay - Philippines - Singapore - South Africa - Switzerland - Taiwan - Thailand - United States of America - Uruguay - Venezuela
The document is available at
http://attac.org/fra/orga/doc/ue4en.htm and
http://www.gatswatch.org/requests-offers.html
b) Secret EU document threatens Post, Telstra and Australian foreign ownership rules -Media release from AFTINET
A leaked secret European Union document about the current WTO Trade in Services (GATS) negotiations shows that the EU is seeking global rules which remove the right of Australian governments to regulate essential services, says Dr Patricia Ranald, the convenor of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network (AFTINET). AFTINET is a network of over 50 community organisations which conducts public education on trade policy.
"The EU document demands that Australia remove the right to reject foreign investment 'on the basis of national interest considerations,' labelling this right as 'discriminatory'. This would effectively remove the few remaining powers of the Foreign Investment Review Board to regulate foreign investment in services" Dr Ranald explained.
Dr Ranald says the document also requires Australia to
treat postal services purely as traded goods and open them to competition by private foreign companies. This would threaten the current policy of public ownership of basic postal services to ensure that they remain affordable all Australians, especially those living in rural and regional areas
remove the requirement of majority Australian ownership of shares in Telstra
treat water services purely as traded goods which would threaten most state governments policies of public ownership and price regulation of water services to ensure they remain accessible and affordable to all Australians.
"This document has echoes of the failed Multilateral Agreement on Investment and shows the danger of governments negotiating behind closed doors" says Dr Ranald.
"AFTINET is launching a publication "The WTO New Round: Resurrecting the MAI?" on April 24 at 12.30 at the Jubilee Room, NSW Parliament House, Maquarie St, Sydney which explains these issues and calls for public debate on them".
"In Australia, trade agreements are tabled briefly in parliament and examined by a parliamentary committee, but they are not voted in parliament: Cabinet makes the final decision. We must demand more transparency and accountability of our governments, so that vital policy on essential services is not secretly signed away in trade agreements. We call on the Australian government to release the requests it has made to other governments so that they can be publicly debated," she added.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
c) Europe wants to muscle in on post, water markets
By Toni O'Loughlin, Sydney Morning Herald, 17 April 2002, p2.
Mail, water supplies and other publicly supplied services around the country would be thrown open to overseas companies, and foreign investment limits scrapped, under a world trade deal being pushed by European countries.
The push is revealed in a leaked draft negotiating document from the European Commission (EC) -representing European Union countries - for the upcoming World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks on the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).
The commission is widening its bid to dismantle trade barriers beyond the perennial issue of foreign investment restrictions to include publicly provided services. This puts areas once excluded from GATS, such as the mail service and the water supply, on the bargaining table.
European companies, including Vivendi Water, Suez Lyonnaise and Thames Water, already have a strong presence in NSW, Victoria and South Australia, where sections of the metropolitan water services have been contracted out. Australian governments would be pressured to allow them to expand even further under a new GATS agreement, according to the peak industry group, the Australian Water Association.
The EC's draft list of negotiating requests also reveals a renewed push to abolish the foreign investment "national interest test" which allowed the Treasurer, Peter Costello, to block the bid by Shell, the Dutch-owned petroleum company, to take over vital Australian oil and gas fields last year. The EC lists this test, under the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers laws, as a "limitation" and a "discriminatory" trade barrier, and calls for it to be abolished. It also wants the requirement for public companies to have at least two Australian residents as directors to be lifted, along with the foreign ownership caps in Telstra, Optus and Vodafone. Government legislation forbids foreigners from owning more than about 15 per cent of Telstra, and there is a requirement for the majority of shareholders in Vodafone to be Australian.
The European criticisms come amid a campaign by WTO members to broaden GATS so changes can be made to government-provided services to minimise restrictions, with the aim of opening them up to the private sector.
Public interest groups, such as the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network, are worried that the expansion of negotiations to include public services will erode the right of governments to regulate, subsidise and fund such services. "The reason it costs 45 to post a letter everywhere in Australia is because it is cross subsidised so rural people can afford it. That would have to change under GATS," said Dr Pat Ranald, convenor of the network.
This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/04/17/1018333540840.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------
d) Secret documents reveal EU's tough stance on global trade
John Vidal, Charlotte Denny and Larry Elliott
Wednesday April 17, 2002 The Guardian
The European Union is demanding full-scale privatisation of public
monopolies across the world as its price for dismantling the common
agricultural policy in the new round of global trade talks, secret
documents leaked to the Guardian revealed yesterday.
The sweeping requests for the opening up of sensitive sectors of its
trading partners' economies including water, energy, sewerage,
telecoms, post and financial services are contained in a 1,000-page
draft document prepared by Brussels officials for approval by member
states next month.
Europe has spelled out in detail a long list of restrictions which it
wants its trading partners to drop. These include requirements that
New York estate agents be US nationals, a ban in Mexico on foreigners
owning land within 50km of the border and rules in Korea restricting
the sale of alcohol to licensed providers.
Many of Europe's demands are likely to meet with bitter opposition
from its trading partners, resentful that Brussels is dragging its
feet on opening up its own markets in key areas. In some areas, such
as energy and postal services, Brussels wants other countries to
break up national monopolies which its own member states have been
reluctant to tackle.
The draft negotiating strategy has provoked alarm among development
campaigners who fear the ultimate goal is to push poor countries into
privatising public services like health and education.
"We are shocked by how the the EU is preparing to trample over its
claims to be in favour of sustainable development in the naked
pursuit of the interests of European multinational service
corporations," said Dave Timms from the World Development Movement.
"These documents confirm our worst fears about these negotiations.
The EU is targeting sectors where there is no evidence that
liberalisation benefits developing countries."
With Brussels under mounting pressure from its trading partners to
scrap its expensive system of agricultural subsidies and tariff
walls in the new round of talks launched in Doha last November,
Europe's top trade official, Pascal Lamy is hoping to make major
gains at the negotiating table in the increasingly lucrative global
trade in services, particularly in the financial sector.
The EU wants its companies to be able to compete on an equal footing
with local firms which will require its trading partners to scrap
rules banning foreign competition and ownership in sensitive parts of
their economies. The strategy is the fruit of years of lobbying by
Europe's financial services sector which is hoping to expand
throughout Latin America and Asia. (ED: and Australia)
With the City of London, home to the most sophisticated financial
industry in Europe, Britain is likely to be a big winner; Mr Lamy's
initiative has enthusiastic backing in Westminster.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
e) (ED: the text of this article has been removed, except for the specific requests at its end.)
Charlotte Denny and Larry Elliott
Wednesday April 17, 2002
The Guardian
The leaked EU negotiating paper sets out a shopping list of demands
for specific countries to open up their markets in services. Some of
the highlights:
Malaysia
· Remove the rule which says government approval is required to buy
land, "if the purpose is speculation and against state interests".
· It is impossible to register as an accountant in Malaysia, unless
you live there. The EU wants the restriction removed.
· Telecoms services can only be provided by buying shares in licensed
public telecoms operators. The EU says other foreign firms should be
allowed to join in.
· Open up the market in "treatment and remediation of contaminated or
polluted soil and water".
· Foreign insurance brokers to be treated on an equal basis with
domestic firms.
India
· There is a 25% limit on foreign ownership of mobile phone companies
- the EU wants it lifted.
· Markets in waste management, soil clean-up and mains water
distribution to be opened to foreign competition.
· Restrictions on who can apply for banking licences to be removed.
· News agencies should be fully liberalised.
· Open up the maintenance and repair of aircraft to foreign firms.
United States
· There are restrictions on foreigners buying land in South Carolina,
Oklahoma, Florida, Wyoming and Mississippi. The EU wants
them struck out.
· Foreign firms to be allowed to deliver America's mail.
· Accountants in North Carolina must be US citizens. No longer, if
the EU prevails.
· The market for "noise abatement services" to be liberalised.
· Estate agents in New York have to be US citizens - the EU wants
foreign citizens to be able to cash in on Manhattan's property
prices.
Japan
· Foreign firms to be given the same treatment as Japanese firms in
"the handling of addressed parcels and packages".
· Distribution of rice, salt, alcoholic beverages, tobacco, and
"fresh goods sold at public wholesale markets" to be liberalised.
· Removal of the Earthquake Reinsurance Company's monopoly on
reinsurance for earthquakes, allowing companies to make their
own arrangements.
· Full access to Japanese ports to be permitted.
· The market in trading of energy products - including "services
incidental to energy distribution" - to be opened.
South Africa
· The EU wants to discuss the requirement for a police certificate of
good behaviour to obtain a work visa.
· Architects must be locally registered to design buildings over 500
sq m. The EU wants the restriction removed.
· South Africa should make a commitment to opening markets in
sanitation, water purification and "nature and landscape protection".
· Remove limits on borrowing by firms more than 25% owned by non
South Africans.
· Foreign banks to use parent company capital to meet requirements on
reserves.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
f)
PRESS RELEASE from the World Development Movement
For immediate release: 17 April 2002
Leaked documents expose EU grab for control of water and electricity services worldwide
The World Development Movement (WDM) today condemned the EU as "preparing to
trample all over sustainable development objectives in the naked pursuit of
the interests of European multinational service corporations", after drafts
of the EU's objectives for World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations on
trade in services were revealed on the internet today.
The leaked documents reveal the EU's draft plans for opening up essential
service sectors in 29 countries, including India, Canada, Egypt, Mexico and
the USA, under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), currently
being negotiated at the WTO in Geneva.
WDM's GATS campaigner Clare Joy said: "These documents confirm our worst
fears about GATS and demonstrate the extent to which Europe's negotiating
priorities reflect the interests of European business alone. They target
essential services, such as water distribution where there is no evidence
that liberalisation benefits the poor. When highlighting this in the past,
WDM was accused of making false claims about the reach of GATS."
Across the board the EU is demanding the opening up of postal services,
water supplies, finance and banking, electricity generation and supply, and
telecommunications services. The EU is also specifically demanding the
elimination of laws allowing developing countries to regulate foreign
investment. These include Malaysian laws saying land purchases can't be made
for purely speculative purposes and subjecting foreign corporate takeovers
to government approval, Egyptian laws which limit the number of hotels and
bank branches according to an economic needs test, and rules in Mexico and
Chile which restrict foreign ownership of land along coastline.
Clare Joy said: "WDM has been calling on the UK Government to make their
negotiating demands available for parliamentary debate and public scrutiny.
They have refused to do so. Last year 262 signed an Early Day Motion calling
for a thorough and independent assessment of the impact of GATS on key
services in developing countries. This has not happened. Now these documents
reveal the EU is planning to press on regardless."
"WDM calls on the UK Government to reject this negotiating draft, written
by the European Commission on behalf of the members states, we must have
proper parliamentary debate and public scrutiny of the GATS negotiating
agenda. It has massive implications for us all. It is wrong that these
documents have had to be leaked in order for us to understand what is being
demanded of other countries. We must have a moratorium on the current GATS
negotiations until a thorough assessment of the potential impacts has been
conducted. Even Senior UK civil servants have admitted in private they
cannot prove the benefits of the kind of service liberalisation policies
that they are forcing on the rest of the world."
The documents blow a great hole in many of the UK government's claims in
defense of GATS. Clare Joy said: "The Government claims GATS doesn't
endanger essential services, yet here they are explicitly targeted. They
also claimed the agreement was flexible and governments retained the right
to regulate - yet the documents show the EU wants developing government
public interest regulations systematically eliminated. Our claims of the
dangers of this agreement have been completely vindicated."
"GATS is not a one-way-street. Other countries, such as the US and Australia
are currently discussing what services the EU should offer to open up to the
ultra free market disciplines of GATS. The EC in these documents is
literally asking for the world - what are we going to have to promise in
return."
Clare Joy
Trade Policy Officer
World Development Movement
Clare@wdm.org.uk
Tel: +44 020 7274 7630
Fax: +44 020 7274 8232
====================================================
g) New Report from Canada:
Facing the Facts: A guide to the GATS debate
by Scott Sinclair and Jim Grieshaber-Otto
Summary and full report available at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) website - www.policyalternatives.ca
Unknown to most Canadians,(and Australians-ED) senior government officials have just returned from a negotiating session in Geneva to expand the reach of the World Trade Organization's services agreement into areas usually considered the exclusive prerogative of domestic policy-making. On the table are public services such as education and health care, and public interest regulations such as tobacco control and environmental protection laws.
The GATS -- a global treaty on services adopted in 1994 as part of the new World Trade Organization -- has been described by its proponents as "perhaps the most important single development in the multilateral trading system since the GATT itself came into effect in 1948." As former WTO Director Renato Ruggiero correctly noted, GATS extends "into areas never before recognized as trade policy."
While still largely unknown to the general public, the binding treaty is deservedly controversial. Its subject matter -- services -- is almost unimaginably broad. The GATS affects how governments regulate services -- from water testing to heart surgery. It restricts actions taken by all levels of government, whether central, regional, or local. The treaty also has a built-in requirement for repeated rounds of negotiations to expand its reach. The current round began in early 2000 and was rolled into the new round of WTO negotiations that was recently launched in Doha, Qatar.
Stung by critical analyses from non-governmental organizations, and mindful that citizen opposition helped scuttle the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), the WTO and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development have both published official responses targeting several GATS critiques, including our own. The WTO characterizes them as "scare stories." Both these documents suggest that public services are beyond the reach of the treaty. They are not. WTO Director-General Michael Moore wrote in a Globe and Mail article last year that the GATS "explicitly excludes services supplied by governments." This statement is false; it is clearly contradicted by the treaty's text.
The key GATS provision that purportedly excludes public services states that, where there is either a commercial or a competitive element, government services are covered. For many public services, including Medicare, which invariably mix public and private funding and provision, the controversial GATS exclusion is ineffective.
It does not protect, for example, against the extraordinary decision made during the last round of negotiations to cover Canadian health insurance under the GATS. Because of this reckless act, if Canadians now choose to expand Medicare to insure home care or drugs, then Canada is on the hook to make additional GATS commitments to compensate foreign governments whose private insurers lose market access. If foreign governments decide to play hard-ball, Canada could face punishing trade retaliation.
Both the WTO and OECD documents leave the impression that the GATS does not affect governments' ability to regulate in the public interest. This is also misleading. Governments retain their "right to regulate" only to the extent that their laws and regulations affecting services are fully consistent with the treaty.
Finally, the official rejoinders play down the significance of the current GATS negotiations on domestic regulation. These talks aim to ensure that public interest regulations affecting services are "not more burdensome than necessary."
In a preview of the type of cases that could become routine under the GATS, tobacco giant Philip Morris recently assailed the Canadian government's proposal to remove the 'light' and 'mild' descriptors from cigarette packages. The company argued that less burdensome regulatory alternatives exist and that the regulations would create "unnecessary obstacles to trade." The proposed GATS restrictions on domestic regulation are excessive and a recipe for regulatory chill.
Despite denials by its supporters, the GATS seriously threatens public service systems and public interest regulation. It is disturbing that many governments are doggedly negotiating to expand it --- even though its existing policy impacts have neither been widely debated nor understood. One thing, however, is certain: deliberately misleading official pronouncements will simply inflame the growing debate and raise concerns among ordinary citizens around the globe.
-------------------
Scott Sinclair is a Canadian trade policy specialist and a senior research associate with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Jim Grieshaber-Otto, PhD, is an independent trade policy consultant based near Vancouver. Their new book Facing the Facts: A Guide to the GATS Debate is published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (www.policyalternatives.ca).
===================================================
2) COMING EVENTS
.One World Seminar Series
Venue Albion Peace Centre Time 7.00pm
Format: two speakers plus small group work and questions
Details The OWSS has been running since 1999 and is a collaboration between
Oxfam Community Aid ABroad and the Global Learning Centre. It deals with
issues of global justice and human rights and is an opportunity for the
community to find out more about various topics, ask questions and get
involved.
Topics
*2 May A Sustainable Australia - population, technology, environment
16 May Imagining our Future - possible world futures
*note: change of venue for the 2 May - TBA
For further info Kitty at kittyc@brisbane.caa.org.au
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The inaugral Qld Independant Forum will be held at Southern Suburbs Leagues Club, Mackay, on the weekend of 4th and 5th of May, 2002.
The Forum is primarily designed to be informative, with a series of authoritative speakers delivering papers of current interest to small business owners, the rural community and Queenslanders in general. For further info Selwyn Johnston ind@gil.com.au
===============================================================
2) CALLS TO ACTION
a) The International Treaty Initiative to Share and Protect the Global Water Commons was launched around the world on World Water Day, March 22nd, 2002. The Howard government and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade appear to believe that water should be a tradeable commodity and subject to the rules of the General Agreement on Trade in Services. If you disagree, please add your name and address and copy and paste the following letter into a new email and send to mark.vaile.mp@aph.gov.au with a cc to S.Crean.MP@aph.gov.au
The Minister for Trade,
The Hon. Mark Vaile,
Parliament House, cc The Leader of the Opposition,
Canberra, 2600 The Hon. Simon Crean
Dear Mr. Vaile,
Fresh water is in increasingly short supply around the world. It is estimated that if current trends persist, by 2025 the demand for fresh water is expected to rise to 56% above the amount available---which will result in up to two-thirds of the world’s people unable to access fresh water.
Just as we are beginning to understand the terrifying dimensions of the depletion, diversion and destruction of this finite resource, governments and powerful transnational corporations are moving in to take advantage of the coming water crisis. It is their intention to commodify the water systems of the earth. The agenda is clear: water should be treated like any other tradeable good, with its use determined by the principles of profit.
I am most distressed to learn that the Coalition Government, through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, apparently agrees with this position. DFAT has submitted to the Council for Trade in Services a negotiating proposal calling for a re-classification of ‘Environmental Services’ under the General Agreement on Trade in Services to include ‘air, solid and hazardous waste, WATER, and noise.’ This proposal is available at http://www.dfat.gov.au/trade/negotiations/services/np_environmental.html
I would draw your attention to an International 'Treaty Initiative to Share and Protect the Global Water Commons’ which was launched around the world on World Water Day, March 22nd, 2002. See www.canadians.org The Treaty states, in part,
’That the intrinsic value of the Earth's fresh water precedes its utility and commercial value, and therefore must be respected and safeguarded by all political, commercial and social institutions,
That the Earth's fresh water belongs to the earth and all species and therefore, must not be treated as a private commodity to be bought, sold and traded for profit,
That the global fresh water supply is a shared legacy, a public trust and a fundamental human right and, therefore, a collective responsibility, and,
Whereas, the world's finite supply of available fresh water is being polluted, diverted and depleted so fast that millions of people and species are now deprived of water for life and,
Whereas governments around the world have failed to protect their precious fresh water legacies,
Therefore, the nations of the world declare the Earth's fresh water supply to be a global commons, to be protected and nurtured by all peoples, communities and governments of all levels and further declare that fresh water will not be allowed to be privatized, commodified, traded or exported for commercial purposes and must immediately be exempted from all existing and future international and bilateral trade and investment agreements.
I therefore call on the Howard Government to endorse this Water Treaty Initiative and to instruct the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade accordingly.
Yours faithfully,
(Add name and address)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 2002
b) WANTED: Your help to get GE-free food labels
GeneEthics Network and Greenpeace Australia Pacific have a joint informaton
campaign on GE-free food labelling. Your support is needed to ensure
complete information is available to food buyers when our True Foods
booklet is published in May.
We need your input to make the list of foods more complete, and to confirm
information from companies. Please look out for GE-free foods
For more info contact
Bob Phelps
Director
GeneEthics Network
340 Gore St, Fitzroy 3065 Australia
Tel: (03) 9416.2222 Fax: (03) 9416.0767 {Int Code (613)}
email: geneethics@acfonline.org.au (Bob Phelps)
WWW: http://www.geneethics.org
============================================================
Terrie Templeton WTO Watch Qld gumbus@powerup.com.au