Doug,
Could you forward this to the folks on LBO-Talk, with the request that they contact me at jplst15+ at pitt.edu if they have more information?
Thanks,
John
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2001 15:18:32 -0500 (EST) From: "John P. Lacny" <jplst15+ at pitt.edu> To: marxist at onelist.com Subject: FTAA and services
One of the most disturbing facets of the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is the attempt to extend its provisions to cover the trade in services. Of course, another really disturbing thing about the FTAA is its secretive nature. A few years ago some whistleblowers managed to get their hands on the drafts of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) and post it on the Internet for the entire world to see. In response the OECD decided they'd have to put a version of their own on the web to mollify an outraged public. Sadly no one has been able to pull this off with the FTAA, although I'm sure there must be hackers working on it somewhere?
Anyway, as part of the Student/Labor Day of Action on April 4, my group is putting together a teach-in on the FTAA in cooperation with the Alliance for Progressive Action (APA), our local Jobs with Justice affiliate. It's preliminary to local actions we plan to have around April 20 at the same time as the activities in Quebec City are going on. For the teach-in, we plan to have a student speaker (someone active in USSA) talk about how the FTAA might affect education. Naturally the trade-in-services provisions are the most likely culprits.
Robin Alexander over at the UE referred me to the Alliance for Democracy, which has apparently produced something called the GATS Handbook, which talks about the General Agrement on Trade in Services. The theory is that FTAA is going to be modeled on GATS provisions. I've contacted the Alliance for Democracy, but I'm wondering if anyone knows of any other resources on this stuff out there as well, preferably something readily accessible on the World Wide Web.
Thanks,
John Lacny