[Imc-india] Open letter to Indian Parliament on WTO-GATS

[Anivar Aravind]

Dear Friends,

  Please find below an open letter to Indian MPs highlighting concerns
on the current services negotiations in the WTO. The GATS is one of
the 3 contentious areas in the negotiations alongwith Agriculture and
industrial tariffs. But unlike the latter two, India claims to have
'aggressive' market access interests in GATS. We have highlighted the
problem with this approach and, as well as, other broader issues.

This letter was initiated as part of a campaign in Maharastra on
'Defending the services sector'. The unions and groups part of this
process can be found in the present list of signatories.

The letter will be submitted to all MPs before the winter session of
the Indian Parliament

Anivar Aravind
GAIA

SUBJECT: WTO: CALL FOR A STANDSTILL IN GATS NEGOTIATIONS

15 November 2005

Dear Member of Parliament,

From 13-18 December 2005, Trade Ministers will meet in Hong Kong to
decide the future course of global negotiations in the World Trade
Organisation (WTO).

The undersigned social movements, trade unions and civil society
organisations are writing to all members of the Indian Parliament with
several urgent concerns on substantive issues with regard to India's
current position in one of the key negotiating areas: the WTO's
General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).

1.         Undermining National Well-Being and Welfare

Over 160 services sectors are in the offing for liberalisation under
the GATS and it seems clear that the Ministry of Commerce is not
sufficiently equipped to understand the complex economic, social and
environmental implications of bringing these sectors into the WTO
framework.

It is crucial that lessons from already existing liberalisation and
privatisation attempts inform India's negotiating position in the
GATS. This assessment is yet to be done by the Indian Government.
Opening up the services sector through the GATS without adequate
assessment of the impacts of liberalisation and privatisation on
national employment, livelihoods, equity and welfare is likely to
result in far reaching negative impacts to a broad cross-section of
people, particularly those in the low-income brackets and situated in
rural areas.

2.         Undermining Policy Sovereignty

India's GATS commitments will seriously compromise India's policy
sovereignty, and render the Indian state powerless to introduce new
regulations, and to penalise foreign services providers for high
costs, poor quality and inadequate access to services by Indian
consumers.

Bound commitments under the GATS will limit the ability of the central
and state governments to enact and enforce domestic regulations in the
public interest relating to licensing, technical standards and
qualification requirements. GATS clauses of market access and
non-discrimination to foreign services providers will weaken the power
of government to supply essential services to vulnerable sections of
society through cross-subsidisation. They will also restrict the
government's ability to further develop capacity in the Indian
services sector through public procurement of goods & services.

3.         Who is driving the Negotiating Agenda?

An examination of present negotiations shows that the aggressive
market access demands from developed country WTO members will not be
beneficial to developing country members. Groups such as the EU are
demanding aggressive liberalisation in Mode 3 (Foreign Direct
Investment) and are calling for restrictions on foreign ownership to
be removed. Making binding commitments under Mode 3 will seriously
undermine the ability of governments to regulate foreign investment in
the services sector.

Also questionable are the gains that India hopes to get from
liberalisation through the Mode 4 route (temporary movement of
labour). One of India's key demands is that the US increase the quota
of H-1B visas from its present GATS commitment of 65,000 to about
100,000. This mirrors the demands of big services corporations in the
US. India has narrowed Mode 4 negotiations to the movement of highly
skilled professionals and does not take into account unskilled or
lower skilled workers. It is indeed unfortunate that India's Mode 4
positions are 'captured' by business lobbies.

4.         Breaking Ranks Outside and Within

India was at the forefront of resistance by developing countries in
the Doha (2001) and Cancun (2003) Ministerial Meetings to attempts by
rich WTO members to introduce investment into the WTO. However, it
appears that India is now no longer interested in maintaining
collective positions with other developing countries to resist
pressures by developed countries for the indiscriminate liberalisation
of services. India has joined a select core group that is now driving
the negotiations in the direction of "benchmarking" or "complementary
approaches."

5.         The Urgent Need for Parliamentary Scrutiny

Larger public interest cannot be traded away to maintain the myth of
multilateralism through India's commitments in the WTO, or to benefit
a handful of domestic commercial enterprises that seek to expand their
business opportunities to other countries. We must bear in mind that
commitments under the WTO are irreversible and that policy actions
have far reaching impacts, some of which may not be visible in the
short term. Allowing water, energy, credit and banking to come under a
weak regulatory environment that is biased towards corporate control
will further undermine the productive capacities of India's
communities, workers and farmers (majority of Indian farmers are
subsistence oriented peasant producers). Access to affordable services
is crucial to building strong, healthy and productive societies. To
defend the integrity of the services sector is to defend life.

Though able and intelligent, trade officials in the Commerce Ministry
are not the best judges of ground level impacts of possible
liberalisation commitments. Substantive consultations with regional
and local governments, policy makers in critical sectors such as
health, education, water and sanitation, environment, financial
services, labour and social welfare, and with a broad cross section of
civil society--including workers, unions, farmers, fisher-folk groups,
women's organisations and urban poor groups--is absolutely critical to
fill these knowledge gaps. But to date, the few attempts by the
Ministry of Commerce to engage in such discussions have been
restricted to an extremely narrow base of constituencies and biased
towards pro-GATS lobbies, while apprehensions voiced by those who
would be most negatively affected by GATS commitments are not
reflected in the Ministry's positions.

Given this situation we urge you as an elected representative of the
people of India to:

Call for an immediate halt on negotiations on services liberalisation
under the GATS.
Unequivocally oppose all proposals for "benchmarking" or
"complementary approaches" to services liberalisation.
Reject Mode 4 concessions as an incentive to open up India's services
sectors to liberalisation. Mode 4 does not promise any relief for the
unemployment problem in India, since the EU, US and other rich
countries will likely liberalize entry only for the most highly
skilled professionals from India and other developing countries, thus
worsening brain drain.
Demand that an inter-sectoral team appointed by the Indian Parliament
conduct a comprehensive assessment of the impact of past
liberalisation and privatisation of services.
Ensure that the Indian Governments position towards Hong Kong is
comprehensively debated and decided in the Parliament

Services are, in one sense, the backbone of our societies and
economies. Every aspect of our lives, from education, health,
environment and transportation to energy, water, food, hotels and
finance, are dependent on services. We cannot let these be taken out
of democratic control and into the hands of a few Commerce Ministry
bureaucrats to be signed away as trade-offs in the WTO.

This time around, the people of India refuse to be confronted with a
"fait accompli" as in India's previous WTO commitments. India's
citizens will challenge any commitment made without due democratic
processes.

We appeal to parliamentarians to call for a complete standstill in
GATS negotiations until the above issues are appropriately addressed.


SIGNATORIES AS OF NOVEMBER 9 2005



1)       All India Bank Officers Association,
2)       All India Bank Employees Association
3)       All India LIC Employees Federation
4)       All India Port and Dock Workers Federation (Workers)
5)       Centre for Organisation Research and Education, Manipur
6)       EQUATIONS – Equitable Tourism Options, Bangalore
7)       GAIA (Global Alternate Information Applications) Thrissur
8)       Focus on the Global South, Mumbai
9)       Hind Mazdoor Sabha
10)   INFAM - Indian Farmers Movement, Kerala
11)   Maharastra State Government Employees Confederation,
12)   Maharastra State Zilla Parishad Employees Confederation
13)   National Union of Seafarers of India
14)   NCOA - National Confederation of Officers Associations of
Central Public Sector Undertakings, New Delhi
15)   Open Space, Bangalore
16)   Samatha, Hyderabad
17)   Vikas Adhyan Kendra
18)   YUVA
19) General Insurance Employees All India Association


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