here is a growing citizen concern about the power of international trade and investment treaties to over-rule the rights of people and communities.
Despite massive protests at Seattle and against the Multilateral Agreement on Investment [MAI], the threats to local democracy continue in the form of agreements being negotiated behind closed doors. In the lead-up to the next World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting in November, international attention is turning to GATS [the General Agreement on Trade in Services] as the latest attempt to impose free market fundamentalism both here and abroad.
GATS -- the General Agreement on Trade in Services -- is one of the WTO [World Trade Organisation] treaties which Australia has signed. It covers a wide range of services, including public sectors that affect the environment, culture, drinking water, health care, education, social security, transportation and a variety of local government services.
The treaty is being renegotiated to extend its power, to phase out all governmental barriers to international trade and commercial competition in the services sector. Under the new GATS, it could be illegal for the Commonwealth or any state or local government to provide a public service to the community if a transnational corporation is denied the right to bid for it.
Several Australian labour organisations, including the ACTU [Australian Council of Trade Unions], have supported a call for action to prevent these changes to GATS. The treaty is also the focus of a major international campaign "Stop the GATS Attack Now!" See http://www.tradewatch.org/gattwto/gatthome.html
A STOP
