War on Want wrong on GATS, says Hilary Benn
Thursday, March 17th, 2005 • Related • Filed Under
At a meeting today in the House of Commons looking at the Africa Commission’s report, War on Want attacked the government’s support for GATS (the General Agreement on Trade in Services). War on Want said that GATS (free trade in services) was “mercantilist”. This is completely wrongheaded. Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for International Development, debunked War on Want’s criticism, saying that GATS liberalisation is voluntary. Perhaps what we have on the part of the politicised campaign groups is an unwillingness to accept that developing countries might freely chose good economic policies.