Talk:General Agreement on Trade in Services
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istia 18:49, 3 September 2006 (UTC)istia
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[edit] Information Vs. Rabble-Rousing
Dear Anti-GATS Protestors: I started this page to provide information about the GATS, which is a legal instrument, or treaty, to which national governments have signed, after years of negotiationa. There is a huge movement to protest the GATS by non-experts. If you guys want to make a page about anti-GATS literature, then make it in Wikipedia, but don't confuse the facts and legal information with rumor and hearsay. Please.
I noticed someone took out the external link to gatswatch.org, so I'm putting it back in. It seems to me that since the article has a section on criticism, an external link to a site with information on criticisms of GATS is appropriate. Hegar 18:13, 19 February 2006 (UTC)
If someone does not like something - He should not remove that from here.
Good article Hegar -added a little paragraph on the critique of GATS -tell me what you think about it! Cookydog.
[edit] Four Modes of Supply
This section links to another article, Four Modes of Supply, which looks pretty much like a direct copy of the information presented in this article. The Four Modes of Supply article then links to itself, as it's pretty much a copy of the section. Would it be appropriate to have Four Modes of Supply simply redirect to General Agreement on Trade in Services instead of having two articles to upkeep? Atreys 03:41, 5 April 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Encouraging Privatisation
The GATS requires WTO member states to gradually open the services sectors of their economies to privatization and ownership and provision by multinational corporations. This element of the GATS has been criticised because many of these services -like education, health-care, water and postal services - are currently supplied by governments, which mostly guarantee a basic level of service for all citizens. There is concern that if essential services are privatized under the GATS, citizens will be required to more pay for previously free or low-cost services, and requirements
istia This is an absolute fabrication. GATS doesn't require any gradual opening of services sectors. This was written by a non-expert. Please confine such writings to the discussion page, where it belongs.
[edit] Criticism by Non-Experts
The GATS document has been criticized, by people who haven't read the agreement, for:
- Encouraging the privatisation of public services like health-care, education, postal and water services
- Undermining the authority of national legislatures and national authority more generally.
[edit] Undermining Sovereignty
The GATS has been criticised by civil society groups for udermining the sovereignty of elected governments by disallowing their regulation of their own economies. According to Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians, "Essentially, the GATS is mandated to restrict government actions in regards to services through a set of legally binding constraints backed up by WTO-enforced trade sanctions. Its most fundamental purpose is to constrain all levels of government . . . and to facilitate access to government contracts by transnational corporations in a multitude of areas, including public health and education." [1]
[edit] Confusion among non-experts
Confusion exists among non-experts about what it means to adhere to an international treaty For example, a WTO Dispute Resolution Panel on the Cross-border Supply of Gambling and Betting Services in 2004 ruled that "Members' regulatory sovereignty is an essential pillar of the progressive liberalisation of trade in services, but this sovereignty ends whenever rights of other Members under the GATS are impaired." [2]
