Executive Summary: GATS AND WATER
THE THREAT OF SERVICES NEGOTIATIONS AT THE
WTO
The adoption of the General Agreement on Trade
in Services (GATS) in 1994 marked a dramatic expansion of the
world trade agenda into sectors which had previously been untouched
by global trade rules. While those rules had long dealt with trade
in goods, GATS opened up the service sectors of individual economies
to a programme of "progressive liberalisation" under
the auspices of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). That liberalisation
programme is now beginning to take effect across the wide range
of services covered by GATS—from accountancy, construction
or maritime services to sectors of direct importance for children
such as education, health and water.
This briefing examines the challenges raised
by GATS in the context of the services negotiations currently
taking place at the WTO. It looks in particular at the water sector,
which has been one of the most contentious aspects of the GATS
liberalisation programme. Drawing on new research conducted by
Save the Children UK in the Philippines and Colombia, as well
as other sources, the briefing exposes some of the inherent problems
of water liberalisation in developing countries.
In view of the seriousness of these problems,
Save the Children UK recommends that no WTO member should commit
its water sector under GATS in the current round of services negotiations.
The "lock in" mechanism of GATS makes any GATS commitment
effectively irreversible, and thus requires a far higher threshold
of certainty as to the consequences than liberalisation alone.
For sectors such as water and sanitation, in which experiences
of liberalisation to date have often proved negative, that degree
of certainty is clearly absent.
Save the Children UK has long experience of
the importance of clean water and sanitation for children's health.
The right to health—and the consequent need for clean water—is
enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the world's
most widely endorsed human rights treaty, which has been signed
by all countries and ratified by all but two. Save the Children
UK calls on all WTO members to ensure that the GATS programme
of services trade liberalisation is not allowed to compromise
children's right to health.
John Hilary
Save the Children UK
April 2003
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