February 5th , 2000

LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Geelong Advertiser

Last year Mr McArthur reluctantly conceded that the Australian government had to withdraw from negotiating a comprehesive trade liberalisation treaty, the notorious Multilateral Agreement on Investment, because of concerns about the environment and sovereignty. This year he is pleading the cause of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) whose program is alarmingly similar (GA 31/1/2000).

Consider the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). According to World Trade Organisation promotional material:

'The GATS is the first multilateral agreement to provide legally enforceable rights to trade in all services... And it is the world's first multilateral agreement on investment since it covers not just cross-border trade but every possible means of supplying a service, including the right to set up a commercial presence in the export market.'

Under these existing provisions we have been forced to sacrifice any advantage we may have gained in our established services markets. We are also expected to open up our internal services markets or face the prospect of stiff sanctions. On the so-called 'level playing field' local companies are forced to compete 'equally' with multi-billion dollar transnationals who don't even play by their own rules.

The agenda of the recent Seattle WTO ministerial was simply another attempt to steal the remaining export and domestic markets of third world countries and smaller nations like Australia.

Following the Seattle fiasco the WTO met quietly in Geneva on the 17th of December 1999. There were no cameras, no protesters, and President Clinton's electoral opportunism had no platform. The same agenda that was rejected in Seattle was brought out. Again most third world countries rejected what was put on the table.

If Mr McArthur believes in due democratic process, then perhaps he can tell us why this second meeting was kept secret and away from the eyes of his constituents?

Serena O'Meley
Alan Griffiths