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Call to Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath to reject Annex C on GATS |
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Thursday, 15 December 2005 |
Stand for the Indian People! Stand for the South!
Call to Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath to reject Annex C on GATS
Hong Kong, 15 December 2005
Dear Minister Kamal Nath,
As you are aware Paragraphs 19-21 in the main body of the text and Annex C, which comprise language on services liberalisation, are the most controversial sections of the Draft Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration. This text has come in for massive opposition from within and outside India. Over 80 developing countries from Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Pacific and Caribbean that include several least developed countries (LDCs) are principally opposed to this text. As we write this, there are reports that tremendous pressure is being exerted on these countries to remain silent and withdraw their opposition. Attempts are also being made by rich nations to obtain the assent of developing countries, especially LDCs through hollow offers of aid for trade.
Before you arrived at Hong Kong, 115 Indian groups representing Trade Unions, social movements and NGOs sent an open letter to over 450 Members of the Indian Parliament questioning India’s stand in the GATS talks. As a result, questions were raised in the Indian Parliament by several MPs on your delegations negotiating strategy that comprises India’s public interest as well as alienates its long established allies.
Annex C has several problems. The principal one is that it changes the rules in the midst of the game. Developing countries agreed to the GATS because of its flexible nature and this text contains language that completely reverses this mechanism. We do not understand how far-reaching plurilateral and sectoral negotiations can be launched when countries are nowhere near agreement on multilateral rules on crucial areas such as Emergency Safeguard Mechanisms, Subsidies and Domestic regulation. Reports indicate that sectors such as finance, telecommunications, energy, distribution, water, education and health will be particularly targeted in sectoral negotiations in 2006. Further, the language in the modal section (Paragraph 1), which was mainly drafted by India, will be used by countries with export interests to demand mandatory qualitative and quantitative targets for services liberalisation. Also questionable are India’s purported gains in Mode 4, which is focused only on an elite section of professionals. We also understand that the US Congress will not provide USTR Robert Portman with the mandate to link temporary movement of labour into trade agreements such as the GATS. Finally the text mentions that countries should look at a possible framework for liberalising government procurement, an issue that was rejected by virtually the entire developing country membership as part of the Singapore issues in the 2003 Cancun Ministerial.
There is nothing in this disastrous text for developing countries. We urge you to reject this text unconditionally and join hands with other developing countries that are calling for the same. India has been in the forefront of defending third world interests in the WTO and this Ministerial Conference offers you an opportunity to stand up for the south.
Sincerely,
Signed by Indian groups in Hong Kong and in India |
