The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Government stand on GATS negotiations flayed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 28, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Government stand on GATS negotiations flayed

Staff Reporter

"Agreement constitutes greatest threat to democracy"

CHENNAI: : A people's consultation on WTO-GATS was held here on Tuesday in the context of the negotiations on opening up India's services through the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).

The participants condemned the government focussing on securing free movement of professionals to the American and European markets in exchange for access to the service sectors of the GATS.

The consultation was organised by the International Presentation Association-India and the Human Rights Advocacy and Research Foundation, and Equations from Bangalore and attended by representatives of non-governmental organisations, advocacy organisations, trade unions and academicians.

"Capital speculative"

"Accepting GATS will mean allowing global finance capital to go on a rampage in India," said J. Gurumoorthy, joint secretary, All-India Life Insurance Association. All foreign capital that had come into the country was speculative; none went into manufacturing.

Benny Kuruvilla pointed to the irony of Geneva, headquarters of the WTO, being a GATS-free zone.

The WTO's Sixth Ministerial Conference in December is expected to seek an end to the Doha Round of negotiation with legally binding commitments from member countries. The GATS services range from basic services of water, health and education to architectural, tourism, banking and insurance services.

Participants termed the GATS "the greatest threat to democracy to come from an international economic agreement since the Multilateral Agreement in Investment, defeated in October 1998." The near-impossibility of reversing liberalising measures made under the GATS was cited as proof.

The draft statement of concern that will be widely circulated decried the negative impact on universal access to basic services and the neglect of consultation with groups and people in the South and of public debate.

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