General Agreement on Trade in Services
Intensified exploitation, added burden

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

The greedy imperialists are definitely unremitting in their maneuvers to amass maximum benefit from the world's peoples. Through the World Trade Organization (WTO), multinational and transnational companies are now pushing to the hilt negotiations for the complete implementation of the General Agreement on Trade in Services or GATS.

GATS was one of the agreements reached in GATT's Uruguay Round in 1994. It involves the liberalization and deregulation of services not only in trade, but even in public institutions and utilities. GATS is among the crucial agreements covering the agriculture, investment and trade sectors. Through GATS, foreign companies can now penetrate businesses and institutions previously reserved for local businessmen and government.

The WTO is now in the process of reviewing GATS to broaden the services covered and in the process coerce the majority of WTO member-countries that up to now have refused to enter GATS.

GATS negotiations became the focus after the collapse of negotiations for the Multilateral Agreement on Investments (MAI) in 1998, the trade negotiations in Seattle, USA in 1999 and the WTO Fifth Ministerial Meeting in Cancun, Mexico this September. The upheaval staged by small countries against the further liberalization in trade advanced by the US, EU and Japan punctuated the Cancun meeting.

Negotiations regarding GATS have now entered their most intense phase, with the list of which services to completely liberalize and which ones to be left within the countries' jurisdiction being finalized. Imperialist countries perpetrate coercion and apply pressure tactics against semicolonies in these negotiations.

Services covered

The WTO has no clear definition of what "service" means in the context of GATS and has only provided categories: business; communications; construction and other related engineering services; distribution; education; nature; finance; health and social services; tourism and travel; entertainment, culture and sports; and transportation, among many others.

According to the WTO Secretariat, only 42 countries have opened their hospitals to GATS. Meanwhile, 15 countries have opened related health services, such as laboratories, among others. Seventy-eight countries have opened their health insurance sectors. Compared with the number of countries that have been obliged to open sectors in other categories, the least number of countries have opened their health services, as well as their education sector. The WTO is now desperately pushing more countries to open these basic services to complete liberalization.

All-out liberalization

According to GATS, a country must bestow "Most Favored Nation" status on all countries that have entered the agreement. This means that when a country has opened its doors, all other countries must be allowed to come in.

Through the "National Treatment" policy, foreign and local companies must be granted equal rights.

The WTO mandates the withdrawal of subsidies for government social services because they pose limits to the businesses imperialists would like to set up.

It also mandates the withdrawal of restrictions and regulations on company investments in services, including the removal of local policies that ensure environmental protection and the people's health.

There is not room for countries to amend the terms of their commitment to GATs or withdraw from it altogether. The WTO has abolished countries' right to carry out their own policies contrary to GATS and may impose sanctions on any country that does not implement the agreements.

Puppet regime's response

At present, the Arroyo regime pretends to assail certain WTO policies and a number of maneuvers by its US imperialist master. Nevertheless, it continues to carry out the destructive policies of imperialist globalization in the country. The regime perpetuates and even exacerbates the liberalization of services that GATS and other programs have already opened. It also plans to open other fields of service to foreigners despite strong opposition from those in the service sector.

In 1994, the reactionary government opened to GATS the liberalization of financial services (banks and insurance), communications, transportation and tourism. The Ramos regime, meanwhile, allowed foreign corporations to control the provision of water and health services.

21 December 2003
English Edition

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