Governments have been under immense pressure by multinational corporations to deregulate the service industry in the name of 'free trade'. Their biggest weapon is the WTO, in the form of the General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS). Virtually every service, from water to energy to education to heath, is under threat. If GATS goes through, any country that commits a service to the GATS makes an irrevocable pledge to open that service up for take over by big business, and protection of local business will not be allowed. For example, water and electricity could be taken over by the likes of Centrica (aka British Gas), causing local companies to go bust or be taken over. Not only that, the privatisation of such services would lead to prices skyrocketing out of ordinary peoples reach. Prime examples where this had already happened is in Puerto Rico and Bolivia, where the privatisation of water lead to prices increasing six fold in the case of Bolivia, and in Puerto Rico US army bases and tourist areas get an unlimited supply, whilst the poor communities go without water. This system doesn't provide services to those who need it (often the case in the poor "Southern" countries), but to those who are most able to pay for it (often NOT the case in the poor "Southern" countries!) In the case of Bolivia, there were mass riots in which six people were killed, and eventually the government re-nationalised the water system. Under GATS rules, that would be impossible. GATS will also undermine the few efforts already being made to encourage small, local industries to take hold, such as the 'Fair Trade' movement, as GATS would make large "Northern" country based multinationals so powerful that the smaller companies will not be able to survive.

It's not just in the poor "South" where GATS will have a negative impact. People in this country are all too aware of the way the railway service has been blighted by privatisation, and how profit has been put before people. Many call for full renationalisation of the railways, but GATS rules would prohibit this. Hospitals would soon be taken over by big corporations, leaving the country with a situation similar to that in the USA, where the people who cannot afford private healthcare are denies access to it. If this is bad news for the inhabitants of a rich "Northern" country, it is many, many times worse for the majority of inhabitants of a poor "Southern" country.
Education would soon be up for sale under GATS. Companies such as Nike, Coca-Cola, ExxonMobil and Monsanto may soon dictate the policies of schools, colleges and universities. A past IndyMedia UK article ( http://uk.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=21202) explained how the business lobby in the US was critical of the 'culture of laziness which continues in the European education system... where students take liberties to pursue subjects not directly related to industry. Instead they are pursuing subjects which have no practical application'. This lobby wants 'an education system intricately linked to the market and profit'. This implications of this are obvious. People will be denied the right to study subjects such as Philosophy, Art, Literature, and anything that doesn't directly teach someone how to work for the most profitable of businesses. Schools and colleges would soon become places where corporations try to sell the latest products to its students. In the US, commercialisation of the classroom is already alarmingly clear in the from of exclusive soft drink vending contracts, where the likes of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo aggressively market their soft drinks on the students, without any concern to their long-term health. A company offers free IT and multimedia equipment to schools if they agree to make their students watch a so-called news service called Channel One. This 12-minute broadcast consists of 10 minutes of uninformative programming, and two minutes of advertising from companies such as McDonald's, Procter & Gamble, and Nike. This is mandatory viewing for 8 million US schoolchildren every school day. This commercialisation of education could become more widespread if the WTO has it's way.
Corporate involvement in higher education due to GATS will result in policies being twisted to serve the needs of those corporations, and this in turn may lead to corporate censorship. For example, if an oil company like Shell or ExxonMobil (Esso) was to play a part in the running of an institution, research into climate change or negative impacts of the oil industry may be stopped or twisted to look favourable in the eyes of those companies. Student's rights are also under threat as political and campaigning groups in Students Unions find themselves unable to take action (or in extreme cases, banned) in case it damages their sponsors. Naomi Klein's 'No Logo', a book criticising the Western brand culture, states an example where in 1998 the Amnesty International chapter in Kent State University in the US had their funding application to the student council revoked because they supported a boycott of Coca-Cola (who has exclusive vending right in the University), due to their business involvement with the since ousted Nigerian dictatorship.

This piece highlights why large multinationals must not be allowed to get away with putting profit before the needs of the world's population. GATS represents a serious threat to many aspects of life, wherever you are a student in the United Kingdom, or a favela dweller in Brazil. The WTO must be stopped, otherwise an already bad situation will become a lot worse.