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Home > Programs > Trade and Agriculture > WTO Meeting: Doha > Implications of GATS for Global Water Resources |
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Stealing our Water: Implications of GATS for Global Water ResourcesTim Concannon
A number of governments of the world's richest countries are pushing for expansion of global negotiations to liberalise trade in services in the World Trade Organisation (WTO). This is being done through an agreement called the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). The inclusion of water services in the current proposals typifies what is wrong with the WTO in general and GATS in particular. There is general consensus that the world is facing a looming water crisis and investment in water resource management and a water strategy is needed. GATS and the WTO are not the appropriate fora to address this, however, and there are many reasons why GATS will not help solve the crisis. Liberalisation of trade in water inevitably means opening up water services to the private sector, yet privatisation of water services to date has been problematic, with negative impacts for consumers and the environment. Despite this, GATS would be irreversible as countries are prevented from altering commitments once they have been made and there is no fallback position. GATS would undermine environmental protection as it contains only a very narrow environmental exception. Governments could find that laws and measures they have introduced for environmental protection and water conservation could be classified as barriers to trade and be overruled by the WTO. GATS is not compatible with the basic human right of access to clean safe drinking water. 'Full cost-recovery' - the principle promoted by the IMF and World Bank that people should pay the full cost of water, or go without - would effectively be enshrined in law by GATS. Sustainable water distribution practices could also be undermined as charges could be introduced, for example for the collection of rainwater. It is often ordinary people who end up paying the increased financial cost resulting from water privatisation as companies try to recoup their investment. This is either through increased prices for water or through state subsidies of the companies. A comprehensive review of the impact of liberalising trade in services is needed before further discussions and liberalisation take place either inside or outside of GATS. GATS is the wrong treaty, in the wrong place at the wrong time. Friends of the Earth Trust
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