Why Does the WTO Want My Water?
'When most people think about trade, they conjure up images of ships laden with sacks of coffee and steel beams ferrying between nations, and trade agreements focusing on cutting tariffs and quotas on trade in goods. In reality however, today's "trade agreements," such as the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the 1995 World Trade Organization (WTO), have little to do with trade. Instead they focus on granting foreign companies new rights and privileges within the boundaries of other countries, on constraining federal, state and local regulatory policies and on commodifying public services and common resources, such as water, into new tradable units for profit.

'A leak this week of European negotiating demands in WTO service sector negotiations that have been quietly underway since 2000 in Geneva provided a harsh wake-up call to the world about what is really at stake in these global "commercial" negotiations. Up for grabs at the negotiating table is worldwide privatization and deregulation of public energy and water utilities, postal services, higher education and state alcohol distribution controls; a new right for foreign firms to obtain U.S. Small Business Administration loans; elimination of a list of specific U.S. state laws about land use, professional licensing and consumer protections, and extreme deregulation of private-sector service industries such as insurance, banking, mutual funds and securities... For instance, once a service sector is covered under GATS, governments may not limit the number or size of service providers, meaning that applying zoning rules on beach front development or limits on concessions in national parks to foreign firms would be forbidden... The GATS not only promotes privatization of public services, but it makes it extremely difficult for countries, states and local governments to reverse privatization experiments that fail. Under GATS, if cities seek to bring a privately operated utility back into the public realm, they only can do so if the U.S. government agrees to compensate all WTO countries for lost business opportunities of their companies.'

Why Does the WTO Want My Water?
'When most people think about trade, they conjure up images of ships laden with sacks of coffee and steel beams ferrying between nations, and trade agreements focusing on cutting tariffs and quotas on trade in goods. In reality however, today's "trade agreements," such as the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the 1995 World Trade Organization (WTO), have little to do with trade. Instead they focus on granting foreign companies new rights and privileges within the boundaries of other countries, on constraining federal, state and local regulatory policies and on commodifying public services and common resources, such as water, into new tradable units for profit.

'A leak this week of European negotiating demands in WTO service sector negotiations that have been quietly underway since 2000 in Geneva provided a harsh wake-up call to the world about what is really at stake in these global "commercial" negotiations. Up for grabs at the negotiating table is worldwide privatization and deregulation of public energy and water utilities, postal services, higher education and state alcohol distribution controls; a new right for foreign firms to obtain U.S. Small Business Administration loans; elimination of a list of specific U.S. state laws about land use, professional licensing and consumer protections, and extreme deregulation of private-sector service industries such as insurance, banking, mutual funds and securities... For instance, once a service sector is covered under GATS, governments may not limit the number or size of service providers, meaning that applying zoning rules on beach front development or limits on concessions in national parks to foreign firms would be forbidden... The GATS not only promotes privatization of public services, but it makes it extremely difficult for countries, states and local governments to reverse privatization experiments that fail. Under GATS, if cities seek to bring a privately operated utility back into the public realm, they only can do so if the U.S. government agrees to compensate all WTO countries for lost business opportunities of their companies.'