---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 01 Dec 1999 15:04:12 +0000
From: Chris Keene <[log in to unmask]>
To: Public Health Mailbase <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: New report on WTO threat to public health services

Dr Caroline Lucas MEP
Greens in the European Parliament


World Trade Talks Could Force Open Health & 
Education to Private Companies

Britain could be forced to open its health and education services to
competitive bids from overseas 
corporations if negotiators at the World Trade Organisation talks in
Seattle later this month have their 
way.

The move could spell the beginning of the end of health and education as
primarily publicly funded 
institutions and could allow foreign companies to force the government
to give them contracts worth 
millions of pounds.

Evidence that despite denials, negotiators could have public education
and health on the agenda is 
revealed in a report to be published on Tuesday by the UK Green MEP,
Caroline Lucas who will be 
joining a European Parliament delegation to the talks. Her report is
backed up by a restricted WTO 
position paper she has obtained which spells out the way companies are
taking over health and education 
services and how the WTO could respond.  
The WTO paper is marked "restricted" and is part of the Information
Exchange Programme for WTO 
Delegations. It states: "The forthcoming round of negotiations under
GATS (General Agreement on Trade 
in Services - one of the WTO agreements) offers an opportunity for WTO
members to reconsider the 
breadth and depth of their commitment on health and social services,
which are currently trailing behind 
other large sectors. Even in the most economically advanced countries,
the health services sector, 
representing, for example, close to 6% of US GDP, has remained a minor
contributor to trade. However 
the picture seems to be gradually brightening over time (with) various
countries moving towards stronger 
market orientation." The paper goes on to suggest "possible areas for
discussion: How can WTO members 
ensure that ongoing reforms in national health systems are mutually
supportive and, whenever relevant, 
market-based? Given the breadth and depth of these reforms, would it be
helpful to provide a forum in the 
WTO to exchange information, regardless of the existence of specific
commitments at present?"

Dr Lucas said today: "Despite denials from the WTO and the British trade
minister, the WTO at the 
behest of big business, particularly in the health sector, is about to
try and break open and gradually 
dominate public services like health and education. It will use the
little known GATS which the WTO 
describes as the first ever set of multilateral, legally enforceable
rules governing international trade in 
services. The Seattle Round is already mandated to extend GATS
commitments. Indeed the most recent 
draft of the Seattle Ministerial declaration ominously declares 'no
service sector or mode of supply shall 
be excluded.'"

Dr Lucas's report Watchful in Seattle is to be launched on Tuesday
November 16 simultaneously in the 
European Parliament in Strasbourg and the Scottish Parliament in
Edinburgh. Its release is timed to be on 
the eve of the European Parliament's debate on the position it should
adopt for Seattle.

Watchful in Seattle reveals how the British government's introduction of
the Private Finance Initiative 
may provide the opportunity for foreign companies to force their way
into health and education. WTO 
policies already agreed require countries to open up most industries and
services to commercial bids. 
Excluded are services which are supplied  "neither on a commercial
basis, nor in competition with one or 
more service providers."  According to Dr Lucas this latter clause could
mean that countries could 
demand that where a government has allowed a private company to run, for
example a hospital or school, 
under PFI, then similar foreign commercial bids would have to be taken
for those schools and health 
facilities since they are provided "in competition with other service
providers." 

She points out: "Since total public monopolies are extremely rare,
almost all the world's health and 
educational systems could fall under the GATS umbrella. Governments may
even be prevented from 
intervening in the education service in any way which can be construed
as hindering foreign investment. 
Examples may include governments being forced to issue accredited
diplomas even if there is little control 
of what is being taught by these private institutions."

Dr Lucas continues: "The US is a prime mover in these proposals. The US
Trade Representative Charlene 
Barshefsky is on record as saying: 'the US is of the view that
commercial opportunities exist along the 
entire spectrum of health and social care facilities including
hospitals, outpatient facilities, clinics, 
nursing homes, assisted living arrangements and services provided in the
home.'"

The US position is heavily influenced by big business lobbyists. The
industry group, Coalition for Service 
Industries has been lobbying for "the maximum liberalisation of services
in the shortest time.  Their 
objectives for the Seattle Round are: "to encourage more privatisation,
to promote pro-competitive 
regulatory reform and to obtain liberalisation." Specifically they want
"to allow majority foreign 
ownership of health care facilities and to seek inclusion of health care
into WTO government procurement 
disciplines."

The Greens position at the WTO talks will be backed up by thousands of
campaigning groups from across 
the world who will converge on Seattle.  "People have woken up to how
the WTO favours transnational 
companies before safe food, the poor and the environment. We have seen
it pressurising European 
consumers to eat US beef injected with growth hormones and trying to
stop the EC giving preference to 
small Caribbean banana producers," says Dr Lucas. "Waiting in the wings
for some time has been the 
likelihood of the GM industry 'renting' the US government to get the WTO
to force Europeans to eat GM 
foods. Now the WTO is gearing up to ensure that public services also
come under the control of the 
corporate sector.

"Watchful in Seattle is intended as a wake-up call. The level of
political ignorance about this outside the 
Green Party and a few other politicians is both breathtaking and
shameful."

The full text of the report can be found at
http://www.greenparty.org.uk/homepage/reports/1999/WTOseattle.htm


More information:	

Caroline Lucas 	MEP mobile:	 			0802 721996
Peter Lang  	Press Officer 				01531 670 298	
Colin Hines  	Research				0181 892 5051



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