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More on GATS GATS is due to be signed by Australia during the first week of November 2002. GATS is an agreement designed to have the same effect as the discredited MAI in that it takes control of internal affairs of a country away from the government of that country and places them under this international agreement. GATS adds services to international agreements on trade:
Under GATS there can be no exceptions all services are subject to this agreement. All services must go to international tender. The lowest tender must be accepted. This means that if the USA, India, Pakistan or Afghanistan or any other country that comes in at the lowest priced tender to run our public hospitals, school, police or any other service, then that is who will be running our hospitals or schools and police. Australia will have no say having agreed to GATS. The result is that the people running the hospitals, schools, trains, whatever service will be foreigners using foreign labour and in many cases, if not all cases, not be able to understand the English language and only interested in the dollars going to them as part of the contract. One can only assume that all the major parties are happy to sign. There has been no debate. There is no opposition within government circles. Political party positions on GATS should be out in the open before the election because it will be during the next government's term that GATS will be due for signature. We need to know now who plans to hand over the keys to Australia in 2002 before we vote later this year. Apart from the standard of service we can expect to get, it will be supplied at the labour rate of pay that applies in the country winning the tender on the lowest price. Australians will be forced to work at these rates or not work, that is if they are offered a job in the first place. Now it becomes clear why institutions such as the police force was renamed the police service. ... and more on GATS Governments, including Australia's - acting as a result of pressure from big business are about to sign GATS, a binding international agreement on trade in services. GATS part of the WTO (World Trade Organisation) is designed to override national governments in much the same way as the totally discredited MAI proposed that led to the Seattle, Melbourne and other demonstrations against the proposed corporate take over of national governments. The 1994 GATS proposal now due for signature identified 160 sectors of human activity and grouped them into 11 categories that all become subject to GATS. The categories are: Business. Communications (telecoms, postal, audio (radio), visual (tv), Construction, engineering and related services, Distribution, Education, Environmental (water, electricity, energy delivery and refuse disposal), Financial, Health and social related services, Tourism and travel related services, Recreational, cultural and sporting, Transport (sea, air, rail, road and auxiliary), Other - all services not covered by the above ten. GATS negotiations cover all human services and open them all up to world-wide public tender and stipulate that the lowest tender must be accepted. The driving force behind GATS is multinational companies (cartels) who have successfully got control of world trade in commodities through GATT (General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs) now pursuing control over the worlds services. It is clear from the total lack of government activity in this, that all sides of politics accept GATS and are prepared to sign up without one skerrick of public information or debate. Are our politicians so naive that they are prepared to sign away their control over internal affairs as a national government or are they willing and well compensated parties to this treachery. GATS talks will take place on 8, 9 & 12 November in Qatar. GATS is expected to be ready for signature in early November 2002, when Australia is already set to sign. �
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