'Article 133 - The Elephant in the Living Room of the Nice II Debate

Thursday September 19, 2002 00:41

by Blsst . ers on my fingers

. . . or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the GATS.'

"Let me get really controversial. I am determined on this trip to put the case to the UK government for more majority voting in the forthcoming IGC... I am talking, of course, about updating the EU's common commercial policy as set out in Article 133 of the Treaty, to permit qualified majority voting in the Council to determine our position in international trade negotiations in services, intellectual property and investment." - EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy (3)

Some IMC contributors paid a visit to one of Fine Gael's forums (1) on the Nice Treaty at which Peter Sutherland - in reply to an IMC question about the complexities of Article 133 of the Treaty - gave a very honest answer. "He kindly confirmed that the General Agreement on Trade and Services can be ratified post-Nice without ever being debated in, much less subject to the approval of, a National or European parliament or any other form of democratic institution." In the course of his answer he mentioned three groups - the EU Commission, The Council of Ministers and the Article 133 Committee as being the groups with the combined power to sign the EU as a whole up to GATS. When did anyone ever vote for one of these groups? They are all appointees rather than elected representatives. And who are the 133 Committee anyway? Try Google. You will get more info from a simple search about this shadowy group than the EU will ever give you.

Peter Sutherland has a lot more to do with the EU and its shady trade negotiations than some people would like him to have. Greg Palast (2) for one. "One set of documents, minutes of the private meetings of the Liberalization of Trade in Services (LOTIS) (5) committee were discovered by the Dutch think tank Corporate Europe Observatory. They record 14 secret meetings from April 1999 and February 2001 between Britain's chief services trade negotiators, the Bank of England and the movers and shakers of the Euro-American business world. Those attending the closed LOTIS include Peter Sutherland, International Chairman of US-based investment bank Goldman Sachs and formerly the Director General of the World Trade Organization." What were these meetings about? Trade liberalisation in general and GATS in particular? Find out for yourself here. (6)

What Mr. Sutherland wants, and the reason he is willing to deal with in(s)ane questions and speeches from blue-shirted yes-men, is that a yes vote will line up fast track negotiating powers for the EU Commission so that the EU can ratify and impliment GATS with as little democratic oversight as possible and as quickly as possible.

So what is GATS? (4) Fundamentally it is a services privatisation treaty which, if the EU signs up to it as it is likely to do if the Treaty of Nice is ratified by all member states, will be enforced by the WTO. The small print is a worldwide wet dream for Global Corporations. GATS and concerns about it seems to be one of the main elements linking the anti-Nice arguments being put forward by the various left anti-Nice campaigns including Libertarians against Nice, The Green Party, Sinn Fein, The Socialist Party and The Socialist Workers Party.

The Media here however, never mind the Referendum Commission or the yes-men in Labour/Fianna Fail/ Fine Gael, are doing a grave disservice to voters by, whether through ignorance (some sections of the Media) or malice (FF/FG/PDs/Labour and the business sections of the Media), brushing this aspect of the treaty and debate around it under the carpet. Here's hoping that the left, as it gears up for the campaign proper, gives Article 133, and its implications for the EU/WTO negotiations on the implementation of GATS, a good hard shove to the top of the agenda.

Maybe a few well placed questions or slogans at the IBEC pro nice conference on Friday 20th September would do the trick. IBEC for sure, like Fine Gael, will be avoiding the subject of 133 and GATS like the plague while trying to scare everyone into the yes-line with the usual hackneyed lines about Ireland being the leper of the EU if the electorate plumps for another No. Libertarians Against Nice will be outside (7)) to show you the way in if you fancy getting IBECs take on all this.

Or maybe the Forum on Europe in Dublin is the place to break the ice. First one is at Liberty Hall on Friday the 27th of this month at 7pm and there is a 'return match' on October 4th if all else fails.

Oh - and ask them about who gets to sign the EU up to TRIPS while you're/they're at it. Let us know here in open-communication-land of erron what they have to say on the subject. The stooges will be the ones shuffling in confusion through their Government Information (HAHAHAHA) Booklets. The bad guys are the ones that give the short concise answers, glare at you, and quickly change the subject. Cigars are an optional extra . . . apart from global showmen that is.

It's good to talk . . . for bazzer . . .

(1) http://www.indymedia.ie/cgi-bin/newswire.cgi?id=11903&start=110

(2) http://www.corpwatch.org/issues/PID.jsp?articleid=722

(3) http://www.xs4all.nl/~ceo/observer7/igc.html

(4) http://www.gatswatch.org

(5) http://www.gatswatch.org/LOTIS/LOTIS.html

(6) http://www.wdm.org.uk/campaign/GATSlotis.htm

(7) http://www.indymedia.ie/cgi-bin/newswire.cgi?id=12466