GATS ATTACK ALERT!
SEND POST CARDS TODAY
"No More Secrets"
U.S. trade officials are secretly negotiating with other WTO member countries to expand the
General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) by opening up essential services like our postal
system and municipal water systems to competition by foreign corporations. Deregulating and
privatizing public services are major policy issues that require open public debate. We the
people and our elected officials must have a voice. All the GATS requests must be made public.
Send post cards to Robert Zoellick and your Congressional Representative demanding that all the
GATS documents be made public. Then get your local officials involved.
First countries "request" other countries to change their laws and regulations. Then countries
respond to these requests with their "offers." This bilateral horse trading between countries
continues until they agree on a set of changes in each country. Once agreed upon these changes
apply to ALL countries in the WTO.
The US negotiators (USTR) have said that they WILL NOT MAKE THESE REQUESTS AND OFFERS
PUBLIC. So we have no way of knowing what is being traded away. The USTR is trading away our
democracy and potentially putting our essential services under threat.
The U.S. has already sent and received the initial requests. The deadline was June 30. These
requests must be made public. The leaked EU documents under "The Big Leak" give a taste of
what is to come.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
The Alliance has developed campaign tools for demanding that this process be made public. Once
we know what may be bargained away, we can speak out to protect our water, keep essential
services public, stop land grabs, and protect local businesses.
POST CARDS
Send a post card to US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and while you are at it send one to
your Representative and one to your local media. That's the first step. We need thousands of post
cards to flood the USTR, so take them to your chapter meeting and set up a table in your
community. People need to know what is going on behind closed doors.
You can use the post card templates below to create your own post cards or you can order them
in bulk from the National Office.
ASK YOUR LOCAL OFFICIALS TO SIGN A LETTER
Contact your local council members and other local and state officials and explain what is going
on. Ask them to sign a letter protesting this intrusion on their local democratic authority. The
letter is also available on this website under "Stop the Secret Deals: GATS Requests Letter."
Here are three Postcard
prototypes ready for copying, downloading and sending to the US Trade
Representative, your U.S. Representative and your newspaper.
Send this card to: U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick
Office of the United States
Trade Representative
600 17th
Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20508
******************************************************************************
To Ambassador Robert Zoellick, United States Trade
Representative
DON’T TRADE AWAY OUR DEMOCRACY – MAKE GATS REQUESTS PUBLIC. "It is not OK in a democracy for you to
secretly negotiate terms for the provision of public and private services. If the European
Commission's GATS requests had not been leaked recently, we wouldn't know they
want our postal service and municipal water systems opened up for competition
by foreign corporations. Deregulating and privatizing public services are
major policy issues that require open public debate. We the people and our
elected officials must have a voice. All the GATS requests must be made
public."
Here are the public services that I am most concerned about:
____Health Care
____Drinking water ____Social
Security
____Postal Service
____Libraries
____Education
____Transportation
_____________________________________________Signed
_________________Date
Send this card to: The Hon. U.S.
Representative______________________________________
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
*******************************************************************************
To the Honorable
Rep_________________________________
I
have just written to Ambassador Robert Zoellick, United States Trade
Representative, about the secret negotiations taking place on the WTO's General
Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). Here is what I said: "It is not OK in a democracy for you to
secretly negotiate terms for the provision of public and private
services. If the European
Commission's GATS requests had not been leaked recently, we wouldn't know they
want our postal service and municipal water systems opened up for competition
by foreign corporations. Deregulating and privatizing public services are
major policy issues that require open public debate. We the people and our
elected officials must have a voice. All the GATS requests must be made
public." Congress must also demand
that these requests be made public. I look to your leadership on this.
Sincerely, ________________________________________Signed___________Date
______________________________________________________________Address
Letter to the Editor: Until recently, I never heard of
the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). Now I have learned that this
global agreement under the World Trade Organization threatens our public
services. Worse yet, this is being done in secret. I have just
written to Ambassador Robert Zoellick, United States Trade Representative, and
to Congress calling for these secret negotiations to be made public. I told
Ambassador Zoellick:
"It is not OK in a democracy for you to secretly negotiate terms for the
provision of public and private services. If the European Commission's
GATS requests had not been leaked recently, we wouldn't know they want our
postal service and municipal water systems opened up for competition by foreign
corporations. Deregulating and privatizing public services are major
policy issues that require open public
debate. We the people and our elected officials must have a voice. All
the GATS requests must be made public."
Congress should demand that the US Trade Representative stop
trading away our democracy in secret.
___________________________________________Name ___________________Date
