General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)

The WTO Doha round and EPAs in an era of crisis

September 2010

The language contained in agreements being negotiated by the EU through the WTO with their southern counterparts often deliberately diguises real political goals, obscuring the negative economic implications for those countries of the neoliberal agenda.

WTO+10: Still a target and still a cause of crisis

December 2009

Ten years on from Seattle, TNI and other activists from Enlazando Alternativas have mobilised in Geneva together with the global network Our World is Not For Sale (OWINFS) to expose the role of the WTO and the "free trade" agreements in causing economic and climate crisis. 

WTO: Cause not Solution to the Crisis!!

November 2009
Myriam Vander Stichele

The financial crisis should be recognized as a very clear example of how the free trade and free market theory has failed, why the WTO should turn around away from this neo-liberal model and allow for all services and trade to be at the service of people and the planet, not of corporate profits.

What is the role of WTO services rules in the context of the current financial crisis?

November 2009
Myriam Vander Stichele
Sergio Marchi

The WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services (the "GATS")  has very much underpinned expansion without regulation and supervision, so the financial corporations had the guarantee that their expansion would be underpinned. But financial services are not the same as other services – they need special supervisory structures.

End WTO deregulation of finance

February 2009
Myriam Vander Stichele
Since the current financial crisis started, none of the governments, experts or media who have called for new regulations for the financial industry have taken into account rules of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) which actually impose extreme financial service deregulation on many WTO member countries.

The perils of a Doha deal on services

July 2008
Walden Bello
Just as a global consensus is forming around strongly re-regulating the financial sector, developed country negotiators at the WTO are continuing to press developing countries for a services agreement that would drastically liberalise their financial sectors.

Desperate to clinch a new global trade deal, World Trade Organization chief Pascal Lamy is planning to convene a “mini-ministerial” meeting in the third week of July.

Ignoring the crises? How further GATS liberalisation impacts the financial and food crises

June 2008
Myriam Vander Stichele
As the world is still assessing one of the most violent shocks in international financial markets ever, and measures to avoid future financial crises are still not in place, developing countries should be cautious of dangers associated with further liberalisation of their financial sectors.

GATS and Corporate Political Power

May 2006
TNI
Erik Wesselius

Why South Africa needs to oppose GATS

December 2005
Dot Keet

Overview of the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) in relation to sustainable development strategies and government policy options in South Africa

October 2005
Dot Keet