Acronym for General Agreement on Trade in Services, often confused with the
GATT. This is an agreement that falls within the neo-liberal structural adjustment policies of the
WTO.
This agreement was supposed to be expanded in
Seattle during the
WTO 3rd ministerial conference, but was somehow delayed. The idea of the expansion was to attempt to
privatize major segments of the public sector. 74% of all jobs in the
U.S. are in the service sector.
Health Care,
education,
banking,
insurance and data management would all die off in the name of privitization.
Lower standards for public secotr workers and reduced power for local governments to set fair hours and working conditions are all possible.
Since the
WTO was put in place, many service sectors have been
privitized.