without external funding
Negotiations on Trade in Services - The Trade Unions? Position on GATS
Abstract
The study takes a closer look at the trade unions? concerns in the current GATS round. Unions argue that due to the scope of the Agreement further liberalisation has the potential to jeopardise sustainable development by aggravating existing social disparities all over the world. The power imbalances of the negotiations, the lack of assessment, and the irreversibility of a commitment, that we discuss next, all foster the impression that the GATS regime favours disproportionately the interest of strong economies and global corporations. A crucial issue for trade unions is the question of whether public services fall under the scope of the GATS. Taking the European Union as an example, we will discuss this problem in more detail in the following section. The paper concludes with an overview of the different proposals for a WTO reform made by trade unions.
