Open Statement on Negotiations on Sevices Liberalization

OPEN STATEMENT FROM PARLIAMENTARIANS

DEFENDING THE RIGHT TO DEVELOPMENT IN
THE NEGOTIATIONS ON SERVICES LIBERALIZATION


We are Parliamentarians concerned about how the draft Ministerial text
on services tabled for negotiations, attached to the draft text as Annex
C ("Objectives, Approaches and Timelines"), sets the stage for a General
Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) agreement that gravely undermines
countries' capacity to undertake services sector liberalization at the
pace and to the extent most appropriate for their preferred development
strategies.

We are alarmed that Annex C proposes an extremely aggressive process for
services liberalization that, moreover, will particularly hit the
underdeveloped countries that generally have the most backward services
sectors. It goes far in undermining countries' sovereign right to pursue
development according to their terms and according to what in their
judgment is to the greatest benefit of their people. Indeed, a GATS
agreement according to Annex C that severely restricts countries'
ability to assert their sovereign right to decide which services sectors
to liberalize and to what extent lays the basis for severe financial,
water, health, education and other crises.

The proposal according to Annex C overturns established negotiating
procedures in GATS - the bilateral request-offer system - and takes away
whatever development principles and flexibilities there are. Annex C
exerts severe pressure for faster and deeper liberalization by:
1. Setting "qualitative benchmarks" that ask member countries to bind
existing levels of liberalization in Mode 1 (cross-border supply) and
Mode 2 (consumption abroad), while asking for increased foreign equity
participation in the critical Mode 3 (commercial presence). This in
paragraph 1 of Annex C.
2. Obliging countries to enter into negotiations through the expansion
and strengthening of the "plurilateral" and "sectoral and modal"
approach that will replace the voluntary bilateral request-offer method
as the predominant negotiating method. Under this approach, groups of
member countries present requests in any specific sector or mode of
supply to another member that shall then be obliged to enter into
plurilateral negotiations. These are in paragraphs 7 and 2 of Annex C.
Among the important sectors apparently immediately targeted are the
power, water and health sectors.
3. Aiming to start negotiations on government procurement to enable
developed country corporations to corner lucrative government contracts.
This is in paragraph 4 of Annex C.

All told these mean to bring countries in the direction of forcing them
to enter into negotiations on service sector liberalization, preventing
them from ever undertaking policy measures that reduce market access,
and committing them to progressively liberalize. Under the current GATS
approach, countries are free to decide what sectors to liberalize and when.

Annex C is already highly contentious and has been criticized by so many
developing countries. The delegations of the country groupings
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and African, Caribbean
and Pacific Countries (ACP) - some 80 countries in total - have already
gone as far as drafting their own alternative texts that remedy the most
worrying elements of Annex C.

We are Parliamentarians anxious to defend the right of countries to
choose, now and in the future, the levels and extent of commitment to
liberalization in full accordance with people's needs and welfare and
with national policies and priorities. We call on our delegations to
protect this sovereign right.

SIGNATORIES TO THE STATEMENT "DEFENDING THE RIGHT
TO DEVELOPMENT IN THE NEGOTIATIONS ON SERVICES
LIBERALIZATION"

Cong. Saturnino Ocampo (Bayan Muna)
Philippines

Cong. Teodoro Casiño (Bayan Muna)
Philippines

Cong. Rafael Mariano (Anakpawis)
Philippines

Cong. Crispin Beltran (Anakpawis)
Philippines

Cong. Liza Maza (Gabriela)
Philippines

MP Yousef El-Maimani (Majlij Ashshur)
Saudi Arabia

MP Yasmeen Rehman (Pakistan People's Party), Pakistan

MP Aubert M. Helene
France, European Parliament

MP Vittorio Agnoletto (GUE/NGL)
Italy, European Parliament

MP Markov Helmuth (GUE/NGL)
Germany, European Parliament

MP Lotta Hedstrom (Green Party)
Sweden

MP Jimmy Angwenyi
Kenya

MP Shakeel Ahmed Mohamed
Mauritius

Benedict Martins (ANC)
South Africa

MP Dickson Mkono (ANC)
South Africa

MP Ivan Valente (PSOL)
Brazil

MP Ludra Rosado (PSB)
Brazil

MP Maria Helena Rodriguez (PSB)
Brazil

MP Rupchand Pal (CPS-M)
India

MP Adhu Awiti
Kenya

MP Caroline Lucas
UK, European Parliament

MP Agot Valle (Socialist Left)
Norway

Sen. Oya Zrihen (PS)
Belgium

Rep. Karine Lalieux (PS)
Belgium

MP Elsa Papadimitriou
Greece

MP Sisa Njikelana (ANC)
South Africa

Dr. Oburu Oginga
Kenya

MP James Gachagua
Kenya