africa/global: Whose development agenda?: a preliminary analysis of the 109 EU GATS requests

The full 109 liberalisation requests made by the EU to the WTO in June 2002 were previously inaccessible to the public but have just been leaked. It is now possible to find out which countries the EU are targeting and which sectors and assess these intentions against the rhetoric of the EU. The World Development Movement (WDM) conclude from a preliminary analysis of the EU’s leaked requests, targeting 109 countries, two key points:
First, the EU’s claim to be pursuing a ‘development agenda’ is hollow rhetoric. The EU is pursuing an agenda aimed solely at benefiting its multinational companies Second, these requests should be open to public scrutiny. It is simply not acceptable that these documents should be secret and it is unfortunate that the only way the public gets access to this information is through leaks.