The United States, helped several multinational corporations, tries to
discreetly impose the modification of an important trade agreement. The general Agreement
on the trade of services (AGCS) has as an aim
the total liberalization of 160 branches of industry, of which health (3 500 billion
dollars on a worldwide scale) and education (2 000 billion dollars). One of the stakes of
the discussions in progress is the integration of the energy die in the AGCS. The
negotiations are led by Robert Zoellick for the United States and Pascal Lamy for the
European Union. The first is in addition a professor de national Sécurité at the Naval
college of the United States. Second collaborated with Rand Corporation, the think tank of
the lobby militaro-industrialist states-unien, and with East-West Institute, whose
honorary president is George Bush father.
The finality of the AGCS is to make this agreement economic higher than the national
legislations and regulations. Political leaders start to worry about a system which would
dispossess them of their
prerogatives. In spite of the repeated requests of the elected officials, those still do
not have access to the documents of negotiation. After the communes of Vancouver, Toronto,
Quebec, Oxford, Melbourne and Vienna, the Council of Paris comes to declare his
« hors-AGS » city.
It is about a new reverse for the general Agreement on the trade of the
services (AGCS) and, beyond, for the
world Organization of the trade within which this agreement is renegotiated. What contains
the AGCS to lead elected officials of several countries to be opposed categorically to its
application ?
July 1, 1944, on invitation of the allied powers,
quarante-quatre countries meet for a conference with Bretton Woods. It is a question of
creating three international organizations with for objective stabilizing the world of the
post-war period. The World Bank (BM) in charge of the rebuilding and the development, the
International
Monetary Fund (the IMF) which must guarantee monetary stability and the international
Organization on trade (OIC) to regulate the international trade. The first two
institutions see the day. But the OIC stumbles on several points and the United States
withdraws almost immediately structure, created on October 10, 1947 by the Charter of
Havana. They manage to involve with them vingt-trois country in the first negotiations of
what will become the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), whose legal statute
remains fuzzy since it
is about a provisional agreement.
From GATT to AGCS : towards the total
liberalization of 160 sectors of services
Eight cycles of negotiations follow one another, until
April 1994, date on which GATT is replaced by the world Organization of trade (OMC). In
addition to its statute of recognized international organization, it has the advantage of
having a coercive capacity, via its Body of payment of different (ORD). By ratifying law
94-1137,
December 14, 1994, the French Parliament reconnait the creation of OMC and ratifies the 28
constituent annexed texts the Agreements of Marrakech. Among them, the famous general
Agreement on the trade of
the services.
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The AGCS only relates to with him 160 sectors of services
(urban planning, research and development, tourism, mail service, distribution,
environment, energy, culture, education, health, etc). The expenditure of world health
represents, according to OMC, 3 500 billion dollars, the expenditure related to education
2 000 billion dollars.
With the origin of the AGCS are three people, James
Robinson III (chairman of American Express), Hank Greenberg (chairman of American
International Group - AIG) and John Reed (chairman of Citycorp) which
decide in 1979 that to include the services in the negotiations of GATT would be greater
interest. Hank Greenberg having the ear of the president James Casing, it is enough for
them then to convince the
Congress of the United States. A campaign of lobbying orchestrated well, doubled of a
press campaign worthy of the most beautiful psychological operations, arrives there. So
that in 1982, at the time of the ministerial conference of GATT, the American ambassador
William Brock declares that the negotiations on the services are a priority for the United
States. The principal instrument of lobbying used is the US Coalition of Service
Industries (USCSI) which gathers an about sixty companies.
The lobbies of businesses not having obtained whole satisfaction during the signature of
the AGCS in 1994, of new negotiations (or revised) are programmed until its final result,
the total liberalization of the 160 sectors of services. The first revision started in
February 2000 pennies the name « d' AGCS 2000 ».
A sponsored agreement by multinationals
The extent of the fields to be negotiated decides at the
time of the ministerial conferences which must be taken place at least every two years
(Geneva 1998, Seattle 1999, Doha 2001). The ministerial conference of 1999 revealed that
they were partly financed by multinational firms. A committee of reception for Seattle,
Seattle Hosting Organisation (SHO) was created for the occasion. The private firms see
themselves allotting, according to the paid amounts, the titles of « sponsor of
diamant » (150 000 to 200 000 $$US), « d'
émeraude » (beyond 250 000 $$US), etc. Emerald sponsors in 1999 : Boeing,
Microsoft, General Motors, Ford, Deloitte & Touche which obtain a whole a direct
access to the ministers.
The negotiations themselves proceed with the head office
of OMC in Geneva. In theory the decisions are made there with the consensus, but in
reality, the countries gathered within Quad (the USA, Union European, Canada, Japan)
generally manage to impose their will.
Robert Zoellick
Special representative of the
White House for the international
trade talks, Robert Zoellick is in
addition a professor de national
Sécurité at the Naval college
of the United States.
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The current negotiator as a states-unien chief, Robert Zoellick, works
in close relation with the ISAC (Industry Sector Advirory Committee),
Consultative Committee directly installed in the buildings of the
department Commercial in order to know the orientations to be given to the negotiations.
Robert Zoellick is in addition a professor de
national Sécurité at the Naval college of the United States. Its
friendly close relation, Pascal Lamy, are the negotiator for the
European Union with OMC. This former principal private secretary of
Jacques Delors, was a treasurer of international Transparency France. He occupied of the
functions in the European branch of Rand
Corporation (the main thing think tank of the lobby
militaro-industrialist states-unien). He also collaborated with
East-West Institute whose honorary president is George Bush father.
In the facts, Pascal Lamy - who are advised by European Services Forum (ESF, gathering the
largest European industrialists) - and Robert Zoellick get along on the very great
majority of the files. The rare different ones between them would raise more of the
setting in scene that of a real opposition.
The totality of the energy die in negotiation
Pascal Lamy
Negotiator for the European Union,
Pascal Lamy collaborated in Rand
Corporation, the main thing think
tank of the lobby
militaro-industrialist states.
.
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An important file is currently on the table of the negotiations. The
United States requires inclusion in the AGCS of the totality of the
die of the services relating to energy (prospection, extraction,
production, transport, distribution, marketing and management of the
totality of fuels and products energy). The oil companies would thus obtain the
possibility of settling in each Member States of OMC which would yield to this
request (Article 16 - access to the market) and y would profit from the same treatment as
the national companies (Article 17 - national treatment). For the negotiators
states-uniens, but so European, this negotiation is of the highest importance for Saudi
Arabia must all adhere soon to OMC.
For example, if Qatar, engaged its energy sector within
the framework
of the AGCS, it would have the right, initially, to pose some restrictions on the opening
of its market as well as to the national
treatment. But according to process's of successive negotiations, it
would be inevitably led to eliminate them. In addition, its regulations specific to the
sector could be at any moment seen attacked with the reason which they would be
« plus restrictive that necessary for the commerce » (Article 6-4 - interior
regulation). If the country did not amend the texts of laws accused, the United States, or
any other country, would be legitimately founded, in the defense of the interests of their
oil complex, to ask a panel of the Body of payment of different to judge the litigation.
Condemned Qatar would see itself applying retaliatory measures, mainly customs. If the
panel would judge, on the other hand, the national regulation « nécessaire to
arrive at a political objective légitime », the country feeling sorry for could
then call upon article 23-3. Otherwise called « plainte in the event of
nonviolation » this article allows a member whose discounted advantages are
cancelled or decreased by a regulation however conforms to the rules of the AGCS to carry
felt sorry for. The country concerned would have, in fine, either to pour compensations,
or to abolish its regulation.
Prohibited documents of access to the members of
Parliament
This intrusion of OMC in the legislative and lawful fields of the environment, education,
health or of the culture worries a growing number of elected officials. In spite of their
repeated requests, those still do not have access to the documents of negotiation.
According to European deputies' Caroline Lucas and Jean Lambert, only
one parliamentary of each political group of the European Parliament is authorized to
consult the documents confined in a room locked. The deputies do not have the right to
take notes nor to comment on what they read with the other elected officials.
However the methods of negotiation are not the only reason
for polemic. The members of Parliament wonder about their future capacity to legislate.
Article 1 of the AGCS stipulates in effet : «present agreement applies to
measurements of the members who affect the trade of the services. Measurements of the
members mean measures taken by governments and administrations central, regional or local,
and nongovernmental organizations when they exert power delegated by
gouvernements ». According to the secretariat of the OMC : « word
measurement is defined very largely in the AGCS and included the laws, the payments, the
decisions and even the practices not writing ». Refusing the questioning of their
role, elected officials launched on
December 3 to the national Assembly, a « appel for the suspension of the
negotiations on the services within the OMC ». At March 1 this call to already
collected 147 signatures. |
