GATS continues to threaten our services and this article reveals how the UK Government withe the help of lawyers and financial exploiters are determining how to exploit life in the future.

The United Kingdom is home to a particularly influential services industry lobby, which operates through an organisation called "International Financial Services, London (IFSL)". Two IFSL working groups, the Liberalisation of Trade in Services (LOTIS) Committee and the High-Level LOTIS Group, constitute a veritable corporate-state alliance.

Based upon internal minutes of LOTIS Committee and High-Level LOTIS Group meetings, the GATSwatch research paper "Liberalisation Of Trade in Services:
Corporate Power at Work" shows how senior UK government officials work closely with their business 'counterparts' to promote the interests of the UK financial services industry. The research paper, which is publicly
released today, reveals how UK government officials have allied with business in
planning a campaign to defeat civil society opposition against the WTO services negotiations earlier this year.

The unique source material, which was discovered accidentally on an unlinked, but publicly accessible part of the former IFSL web site, gives an unprecedented insight in the day-to-day working of the LOTIS corporate-state alliance. Within the LOTIS Committee and High-Level Group, the distinction between public and private has become completely blurred. The LOTIS structures provide a private forum where government and business discuss strategies for ongoing WTO negotiations on liberalisation of trade in services. This allows the UK financial services industry an unjustified control over large parts of the UK trade policy agenda.

Example quote from minutes LOTIS Committee meeting 22 February 2001:

"Matthew Lownds [Foreign & Commonwealth Office] welcomed the private sector's help in countering the anti-GATS arguments. He noted that the campaign by the World Development Movement in particular was leading to a broadening of concerns. If business was to help convince the public, a case was needed based on the development-related benefits which the GATS can bring. He also pointed to the need to coordinate business responses to the NGOs allegations. Malcolm McKinnon [DTI] said that the pro-GATS case was vulnerable when the NGOs asked for proof of where the economic benefits of liberalisation lay. Christopher Ehrke [Linklaters & Alliance] said that his firm was very willing to be involved in the exercise. He felt that some of the points made in the IFSL paper needed to be more punchy and floated the idea of creating a sub-group to take the work for-ward. Matthew Goodman [Goldman Sachs International] said that the exercise should be taken forward in close consultation with the WTO Secretariat, which had already produced some useful material on the matter."

Full research paper is available on

Report's Conclusions

The close links and close co-operation between business and government in International Financial Services, London and its LOTIS Committee and High-Level LOTIS Group explain why UK government policy on trade in services, and in particular the preparations for the GATS 2000 negotiations, are so biased towards a corporate market-opening agenda.

While it is useful and justified for governments to take business concerns into account when formulating trade policy, privileged co-operative arrangements between business and government does not belong in a truly democratic policy-making process.

Therefore, the UK government is urged to:
- discontinue its involvement in International Financial Services London and the LOTIS Committee and High-Level LOTIS Group. Similar corporate-state alliances in other policy areas should also be dismantled.
- give high priority to the development of balanced and truly democratic mechanisms
for civil society input in trade policy preparation.
- publish all minutes and other documents relating to the government's involvement in
the LOTIS/IFSL corporate-state alliance.
- reassess all current UK trade policy and reorient it to serve the common interest
and to foster sustainable development all around the world.


Notes for Editors:

Erik Wesselius researches corporate power and international trade
policies at Corporate Europe Observatory and Transnational Institute (both based in
Amsterdam, The Nether-lands). As one of its co-founders, Erik Wesselius has been
working with Corporate Europe Observatory since 1997. He is one of the co-authors of
Europe Inc.; Regional & Global Restructuring and the Rise of Global Corporate Power,
Pluto Press, London, 2000.

Since January this year Erik Wesselius runs the GATSwatch project, a joint effort of Corporate Europe Observatory and Transnational Institute. GATSwatch is intended to support the international citizens' campaign to Stop the GATS Attack  http://www.citizen.org/pctrade/GATS/GATSsignon.htm> with Critical information and analysis on the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the ongoing efforts to further liberalise trade in services through the WTO "GATS 2000" negotiations. GATSwatch:

Contact:
Erik Wesselius
Tel: +31-30-2364422
E-mail:  erik@gatswatch.org

Corporate Europe Observatory
Paulus Potterstraat 20
1071 DA Amsterdam, The Netherlands


Transnational Institute
Paulus Potterstraat 20
1071 DA Amsterdam, The Netherlands


GATSCrit is an open list for spreading information
on GATS. To unsubscribe from this group, send an
email to:  GATSCrit-unsubscribe@egroups.com