A list of some of the organisations showing concern about GATS, plus quotes...

Local Government Related:

Local Government Information Unit (LGIU) - "There are huge implications for local authorities of the extension of GATS on the further opening up of many areas of service provision to international commercial competition."

Brighton & Hove Unitary Authority
Oxford City Council
Flintshire Council
Haringey Council
Chester-le-Street Council
Hackney Council (we think)

Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) - representing 1000s of Canadian municipalities "The largely unreported dispute between municipalities and the federal government on trade issues is heating up...And last spring the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) passed a resolution at its AGM demanding that municipal governments be excluded completely from the WTO's services agreement"

Environmental Groups

Friends of the Earth (FoE) - "Friends of the Earth International opposes the continuation of the WTO’s General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) negotiations. GATS has the potential to create adverse environmental and social impacts in a wide range of sectors including energy extraction and production, transport, water, travel and tourism, construction, power generation, and waste disposal and sewage. The WTO must conduct a fully public, comprehensive and meaningful assessment of the past and future impacts of services liberalisation to ensure the GATS does not undermine social and environmental sustainability."
World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
Centre for International Environmental Law (CIEL)

Unions/Professional Bodies

UNISON (strongly-worded motion at previous annual conference)
International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) - "IFLA encourages its members to promote awareness of library values and concerns in the context of GATS to the trade negotiators in their country. The potentially far-reaching implications of trade liberalization in services for not-for-profit libraries should be openly debated. Negotiators should be strongly encouraged to ensure that government support for traditional library service is not exposed to a GATS challenge."
AFL-CIO (one of the biggest US unions) - "We are deeply concerned that GATS negotiators - with little expertise on regulatory policy, development, or the social aspects of basic services - are intruding into areas of domestic law and policy that have very little to do with traditional trade rules on tariffs and quotas. The GATS now covers investment and labor mobility as well as trade, and GATS rules could facilitate the privatization and deregulation of services in a broad range of sectors."
Association of University Teachers (AUT)
National Union of Students (NUS)
Public Services International (PSI)
Education International (EI) - "...there is a major risk that the WTO's initiatives will clash head-on with the principles upheld by all those who value a quality public education system..."
European Universities Association (EUA)
Union Network International (UNI)
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) - The current negotiations under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) have serious potential social implications, particularly in the health, education and water sectors, relating to existing national regulations; the implications for public services and public/private sector balance; the effect on standards; and the capacity for continuing state support. Countries must be able to retain the right to exempt public services from any agreement covering the service sector. The WTO General Council should include explicit reference to social and environmental concerns in the ongoing WTO negotiations on trade in services in order to anticipate and prevent the conclusion of any agreements that undermine vital and socially beneficial service sector activities. Countries must have the right to take a future decision to increase the public sector role in their services sectors (for example following a change of government) without facing penalties under WTO rules.
International Council of Nurses (ICN)
TUC, Scottish TUC
Universities Scotland

Development / Charities

World Development Movement (WDM) - "Moreover, the irreversibility of GATS will ensure that once governments have opened up particular service sectors to WTO rules, there is no going back. The decision of how to organise service delivery is effectively being removed from the political arena. In future, citizens will no longer have the democratic right to decide whether or not services should be regulated."
Save The Children Fund (SCF) - "GATS also undermines a country's ability to manage its basic services in the public interest. Regulation of services is particularly important in the case of health care, yet GATS restricts domestic regulation in order to remove 'unnecessary' trade barriers, driving down regulatory standards rather than raising them in line with public health needs. "
Christian Aid
UN Sub-Comission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights

Government related

In the period prior to the general election, 262 MPs signed an EDM expressing concern over GATS
Over half of eligible MSPs in the Scottish Parliament have signed a similar EDM
The International Development Committee in Parliament has called for a Commission on the trade in services;
Scottish National Party (SNP) - has called for a full investigation into the potential effects of GATS on Scotland's public services
The Health Committee in the Scottish Parliament is conducting an inquiry into the agreement;
Plaid Cymru (we think)
Green Party of England & Wales

http://www.webalias.com/warwickshiregats
Co-ordinator: Steven Kelk, 72 Brunswick Street, Leamington Spa, CV31 2EQ
skelk@dcs.warwick.ac.uk, 01926 773808