Services are the lifeblood of all societies. The manner in which they are provided is of critical importance to all people. For this reason, the undersigned organizations, representing millions of concerned citizens around the world from both developed and developing countries, find it totally unacceptable to have the World Trade Organization and its Member Countries enter into secret negotiations regarding the rules for the provision of services, rather than proceeding in an open and participatory manner.

At the Fourth Ministerial of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Doha last November, a tight schedule was adopted for member countries to submit their initial requests and offers to open up more services to foreign competition. These requests and offers form the backbone of negotiations on the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).

Initial requests were due June 30, 2002 and initial offers in response to the requests are due by March 31, 2003.

We call on all WTO member countries to make public the full documents containing the GATS requests and offers at the time they are issued and received, either by acting unilaterally or in unison with other member countries. General summaries are not acceptable substitutes.

Since negotiations are taking place between countries without intervention by the WTO, as acknowledged by the WTO itself, the release of these documents is entirely within the jurisdiction of Member Countries.

Upon reviewing the leaked documents which contain the requests by the European Commission to 109 member countries, we are shocked by the extent of the EC requests. No longer can it be said that these negotiations are not about essential public services for certainly water/sewer, energy and postal services are essential.

Other requests as well have significant implications for the public.

We therefore call on WTO member countries to declare an immediate moratorium on these negotiations until such time as there can be full public transparency and involvement in assessing the potential impact of the requests which have been made. No offers should be made under this moratorium. During the moratorium each country should establish a process for the public to have a voice in what services are opened to foreign competition under the GATS rules.

We wish to note that the impact on domestic regulatory authority goes far beyond removing regulations that discriminate between foreign and domestic service providers. Even where there is no discrimination, GATS calls for domestic regulations to be “no more burdensome than necessary to ensure the quality of the service.” The WTO Working Group on Domestic Regulation is negotiating how this provision should be implemented. This process must also be open to public input and debate.

Services are intimately linked to every aspect of our lives — hospitals, schools, postal systems, provision of drinking water, sewage treatment, electricity and other energy supplies — to name just a few. Their provision is closely tied to questions of equity, justice and culture. Their provision has special impact on women who, as the primary providers, producers, and consumers of social services, are especially vulnerable to potential negative effects arising from increasing liberalization of such services.

Liberalization of services trade will also affect local and national laws regarding property rights such as ownership, transfer, leasing of land and other public goods. For these reasons, the rules that govern the provision of services must be a matter of public debate.

The privatization of essential public services, which has already advanced very far in developing countries under the IMF structural adjustment programs, has led to foreign control of services, a resulting loss of national sovereignty, and a permanent exclusion of the majority of the population from crucial health, education and other services. GATS rules make it highly burdensome for countries to return to provision of these services by the public sector if they are unhappy with the privately provided services.

More broadly, GATS rules further advance foreign investment in both public and private services, primarily by developed countries. These rules lead to marginalization of domestic providers which lack the economies of scale and greater loss of national control. The current negotiations could result in tremendous reversal of national investment policies in infrastructure, natural resources, and a number of strategic industries and economic sectors. Clearly matters of such critical public policy must not be negotiated in secret.

Developed countries could also experience significant negative impacts. For instance, if environmental services are subjected to market access rules, unlimited access to foreign-based corporations would have to be given regarding municipal contracts for sewage, garbage disposal, sanitation, and water services. Local governments would be powerless to meet their core responsibility for the health and safety of their communities.

Public parks, wildlife and old growth forests could all become even more severely stressed if countries cannot limit the number of service providers who then compete with one another to exploit these resources. Further, as evidence accumulates regarding the negative impacts of tourism on local communities and the environment, locally specific laws to regulate this complex industry are essential.

So far, most processes related to the current GATS negotiations have not respected fundamental concepts of transparency and democracy.

For example, it is only because the European Commission’s (EC) intended requests have been leaked to the public that we know that the EC wants other countries to open up their public postal systems and water collection and distribution systems to foreign competition.

The EC even wants other countries to have local laws regarding the ownership of land changed to benefit foreign owners and to have national research and development funds made available to foreign corporations.

This is just the beginning. As yet we have no knowledge of what other countries are requesting. Nor will we know what countries offer in response. Unless the public is allowed to see the requests and offers, we can only speculate.

Without public input which is critical to examining the potential impacts of requests and offers, there can be no meaningful assessment of the impact of this new round of GATS requests and offers. To make matters worse, the continued call by many countries for an effective mechanism of assessment of services has gone unheeded by the WTO.

We welcome statements from a few countries which indicate that they are taking some initiatives to make their requests and offers public.

However, it is essential for the WTO to adopt a uniform standard that all requests and offers be a matter of public record at the time such requests and offers are made by member countries. Further, since the outcome of these negotiations is of highest public concern, there must be an opportunity for open, public debate within each country as the requests and offers change during the course of negotiations.

Based on our public transparency and substantive concerns detailed above, we call upon our governments to give their full attention to addressing these matters and to initiate an immediate moratorium on the current GATS negotiations.

PLEASE SIGN ON BY DOING THE FOLLOWING:

1) Please send an e-mail to: stopthegatsattack hotmail.com

which includes:

Organizational Name

Country

Contact person

e-mail for the contact person

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* Action Aid Bangladesh, Bangladesh

* Africa Faith and Justice Network

* Africa Gender and Trade Network

* Alliance for Democracy, US

* Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment, US

* Alliance to Expose the GATS, Austalia

* Arab NGO Network for Development, Lebanon

* ASEED Europe

* Asia Gender and Trade Network

* Attack France

* Attack Poland

* Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network, Australia

* Austrian Mountain Farmers Association, Austria

* Berne Declaration, Switzerland

* Campaign for the Welfare State (For velferdsstaten), Norway

* Campaign for the Reform of the World Bank, Italy

* Center for Encounters and Active-Nonviolence, Austria

* Center of Concern: U.S. Gender and Trade Network, US

* Consumers’ Association of Penang Malaysia, Malaysia

* Corporate Europe Observatory

* Council of Canadians, Canada

* Dachverband Entwichlungspolitischer Organization in Karnten,

Austria

* El-amel Association for Social Development, Algiers

* EQUATIONS, India

* Focus on the Global South, Thailand, Philippines, India, Geneva

* Friends of the Earth, Malaysia

* Friends of the Earth, US

* Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy, US

* Global Exchange, US

* Integrated Rural Development Foundation (IRDF), Philippines

* Institute for Global Justice (IGJ), Indonesia

* Institut de recherches de la FSU, France

* Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, US

* International Brotherhood of Teamsters, US

* Lunaria, Italy

* Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, US

* National Catholic Social Justice Lobby, US

* Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, US

* Public Services International, France

* Q-Bar, Indonesia

* Red Mexicana de Accion frente al Libre Comercio (RMALC), Mexico

* Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, India

* Retired Members AMWU (Pld), Australia

* ROBA dell’Altro Mondo, Italy

* School Sisters of Nodre Dame, US

* Third World Network, Malaysia

* Union Aid Abroad, Austalia

* UFRIG (Chercheur auprès d’Oxfam Solidarité), Brussels, France,

Switzerland

* WTO Watch, Australia