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news report
Monday October 07, 2002 13:20
by wormholebrothers
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Jump To Comment: 1Hi folks,
thought it might be useful to also post the text of the PDF file above (I made it up the PDF file from the text for Art 133 which is why I have it to hand).
---
A Note From: The Article 133 Information Group
How the Treaty of Nice Will Impact on Public Services and Intellectual Property Law
The World trade Organisation (WTO) is the highest lawmaking body in the world. Their laws governing trade in goods, public services and intellectual property cannot be over-ruled by any court anywhere in the world. Their decision on the interpretation of these laws is final. As Mary Robinson said on the 6 o? clock news on RTE TV during the Earth Summit in South Africa recently, "What the Irish people have to remember is that whatever new rules to protect the environment we come up with here (at the Earth Summit) can be overturned by the World trade Organisation." Nobody anywhere elects the WTO.
The Current Legal Situation Governing Our (The EU?s) Relationship With The World Trade Organisation (WTO) And Our System Of Democratic Accountability:
® Through the WTO countries around the world are making commitments to the GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services) as to what services they promise to privatise and deregulate.
® Countries are also making commitments to reduce government protection over intellectual property law (e.g.: gmo food, gmo planting, medicine patents, computer software, music patents, etc). This is being done, again through the WTO. The process is called TRIPS (Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights).
® Any commitments we make under GATS and TRIPS are irreversible and any disagreement as to what they mean can only be interpreted by the WTO court.
® The commitments to privatise and deregulate (i.e.: reduce government protection) contained in these GATS and TRIPS documents are a secret. We are not allowed access to them.
® But, the current legal position in the EU is that if we (the EU) are to sign a final version of the GATS and TRIPS, then they must be brought out into the open, we must be allowed to see them and the European Parliament must be allowed to have a ?consultation? on the full text of the GATS and TRIPS agreements.
® After this parliamentary ?consultation?, the European Council of Ministers (the representatives of each of the (currently) 15 members) must unanimously agree to accept the contents of GATS and TRIPS.
The Change to Article 133 contained in Nice is anti-democratic. It would remove transparency from trade negotiations (GATS and TRIPS), remove the European Parliament from any consultation on these trade negotiations and remove national control over public services and intellectual property law.
Article 2.8 of the Treaty of Nice fundamentally alters the legal and democratic system of checks and balances concerning trade law and the privatisation of public services within the EU. The legal rules governing this area are referred to as the Common Commercial Policy (CCP) of the EU are they are contained in Article 133 of the Treaties of the European Union. Article 2.8 of the Treaty of Nice completely overhauls the existing Article 133 (the current situation is outlined above).
® After a ?yes? to Nice in Ireland, the contents of GATS and TRIPS i.e. what we, the EU, are promising to privatise and deregulate will remain a secret. The Parliament and the EU public will not be allowed to see the documents. They will be voted on by the Council of Ministers in secret through a Qualified Majority Vote. And we will not know their impact until the large international companies come knocking on our door demanding privatisation and deregulation.
The Article 133 Information Group Website:www.indymedia.ie/article133/ ; And Some Contacts: Ciaran Moore (Article 133 Information Group), Ph: 01 4545522/087 9570520 E-Mail: [email protected]; Barry Finnegan (MA Student, International Relations, DCU), Ph: 01 8741223 E-Mail: [email protected]; Eamonn Crudden (IMC Ireland), Ph: 01 6016691 E-Mail: [email protected] ; Irish Representatives on EU Article 133 Committee: (It is your right to ask these people what is in GATS and TRIPS and how does the proposed Article 133 of Nice make their job easier by excluding the European Parliament and removing veto rights for Member States: Tony Joyce (01) 6312543, Dublin; Eugene Forde (00) 322 2308580, Brussels ; To get more info on Article 133, GATS and the World Trade Organisation see: Recent News on GATS
http://www.gatswatch.org/ ; Corporate Observatory Europe http://www.xs4all.nl/~ceo/ ; World Development
Movement http://www.wdm.org.uk/campaign/GATS.htm ; World Trade Organisation www.wto.org