68 Civil society groups submit open letter slamming WTO procedural irregularities in GATS negotiations — WTO Director General responds

Update 23 November 2005: WTO Director General Pascal Lamy’s response to the letter

1 November 2005

Civil society groups today are sending the WTO Director General Pascal Lamy an open letter (available in English, French and Spanish) slamming the highly undemocratic and deceptive process used to manufacture the services section of the draft Ministerial Declaration for Hong Kong.

The process used has completely redefined the “consensus” mode of decision-making. Rather than having a consensus before an item is included in a negotiating text, it now appears that the Chair of the Council for Trade in Services (CTS), Mexican Ambassador Fernando de Mateo can include items he deems appropriate. No consensus is needed. However, when asked by Members to remove certain text, his response has been that he requires consensus to do so!

On 13 October, Mateo had released a “Note by the Chairman” on “Possible Elements for a Draft Ministerial Text on Services”.
The text listed the controversial elements – without brackets – of “sectoral and modal objectives”, “plurilateral” and “multilateral”
approaches, and “numerical targets and indicators”. These were elements the majority had already voiced opposition to. (See Annex for countries’ opposition). He ignored the opposition expressed, and these
elements were reiterated and elaborated upon in his second draft, and further fleshed out in the 26 October draft text for the Hong Kong Ministerial. A revised version of the draft is expected to be released this morning, also with the same elements included.

This process sidelines the positions that the majority of developing countries have articulated, and their opposition to the introduction of “complementary approaches”. These approaches would eliminate the current flexibilities developing countries have enshrined in the GATS negotiations. The flexibilities are an acknowledgement that in order to meet national development objectives, countries require time and must selectively and strategically regulate their liberalization process.

The WTO prides itself on being a rules-based organization. Yet here we have another example of the old saying: The rules of the game, known only to us, are subject to change without notification. And, according to Mike Waghorne from Public Services International, “we all know who the ‘us’ in that power-play is and in whose interests they are playing: playing with our services and futures”.

According to Chandra Patel of Seatini “We have noted with concern the new and undemocratic practice of the Chairmen of various negotiating Groups preparing drafts purporting to reflect negotiated consensus: in arrogating this right, the Chairmen have undermined the long established practice, wherein the negotiating groups as a whole exercise the right to adopt texts by consensus.

“We urge all developing country and other like-minded WTO members to reject the new practice of the various Chairmen (including the TNC and of the General Council) drafting and transmitting texts in their own capacities“.

Contacts:

Additional resources: Annex