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= Prisons - Prisons Now it just so happens that "commercial basis" is not defined in The trend in the United States towards privatisation of prisons GATS. The USTR staff say they cannot provide a definition, nor has been quite dramatic over the last decade. According to can the WTO staff. Member countries would have to agree on the AFSCME, there are now 193 for-profit prisons in operation or definition. Meanwhile, if a dispute arises over whether a govern- under construction in 30 states, with 43 in Texas and 24 in ment service is covered, it will be left up to the dispute settlement California. Altogether they account for seven per cent of the procedures to decide the meaning. prison population. Profits passed the US$1 billion mark in 1998. "Competition" is also used without any further explanation. If The two largest private prison corporations in the US are there is one private school in a community, does that mean there Wackenhut and Corrections Corporation of America. These cor- is competition and the public system is not exempted? If one porations have already become transnationals. CCA alone man- community is totally public, but the next has a private school ages 82 prisons with 73,000 beds in 26 states, Puerto Rico, Great which will accept students from both communities, is there com- Britain and Australia. Wackenhut extends its reach to South petition? Again, the USTR and WTO staff cannot provide the Africa and Canada. definition. Not only are prisons being privatised, but 36 states allow corpo- In sum, this exception is so full of holes that it is almost impos- rations to set up factory production in prisons where wages are sible to say with certainty which local, state or federal govern- low and workers forced to be compliant. The New York Times ment services are covered. One thing is for sure: the police and (March 19, 2000, p. 22) reports: "Private military are exempted from GATS under sector programs, which exist in 36 states the "public safety" general exception. and employ 3,500, have doubled in size since 1995 after years of almost no - Government Procurement growth." GATS Article XIII calls for "multilateral Recent studies report that minorities are negotiations on government procurement being targeted by the judicial system: in services under this Agreement within black men are sent to state prisons on drug two years from the date of entry into force charges at 13 times the rate of white men, These three trends— of the WTO agreement". Six years after even though five times as many whites use H H GATS was signed, these negotiations are cocaine; minorities are given longer sen- private prisons, still ongoing. There is, however, a tences and treated more harshly than private sector production government procurement agreement under whites. These three trends—private pris- Fi Fi GATT which only covers goods. — Private in prisons ons, private sector production in prisons, Oe 3 and a judicial system which targets minori- anda judicial system What are the GATS provisions? ties—are creating a system tanta- mount to slave labour. Some of the GATS provisions will be familiar to anyone involved in the fight against the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI). Under GATS, some of these apply to all sectors, whether or not they are included in a country's schedule of commitments. Others apply only to those sectors included on the schedule. which targets minorities— are creating a system tantamount to slave labour. - Workers and Unions GATS is likely to accelerate the use of cheaper labour abroad, facili- tated by use of the Internet in provid- ing many services. Privatisation of government services will allow for replacement of public sector unions with non-unionised workers. This loss of worker power will further accelerate the race to the bottom in wages. There cannot be justice at home or abroad when human services are + Most Favoured Nation Treatment According to Article II, all WTO countries must treat services and service suppliers from any member taken out of the public sector and given over to profit-driven cor- country no less favourably than service suppliers in any other porations. This trend is being promoted by the overall goal of pri- member country. This applies to all services, whether or not they vatisation of all services through GATS. How much will be are on a country's list of commitments. The only exception is achieved in this round of negotiations remains to be seen. government procurement of services (see above). However, at the time the agreement was signed, countries were allowed to take Aren't Government Services Excepted? one-time-only temporary exceptions which are now up for review. Tha Tinitad Ctatas Teada Da and the WTA slave labour. Aren't Government Services Excepted? The United States Trade Representative's office and the WTO Secretariat say not to worry. All government services are except- ed under GATS Article I, section 3 (b) and (c). But is this really true? It is important to understand just what these sections say. Section (b) says "'services' includes any service in any sector except services supplied in the exercise of governmental authori- ty". Sounds fine, right? Read on. Section (c) says "'a a service supplied in the exercise of governmental authority’ means any ser- vice which is supplied neither on a commercial basis, nor in com- petition with one or more service suppliers". - National Treatment Under Article XVII, services and service suppliers of member countries must receive treatment no less favourable than that given to domestic services and service suppliers. This provision only applies to the sectors included in a country's schedule of commitments. As with the MAI, a country could treat foreign corporations more favourably than domestic ones. Take prisons, for example. Once the US puts this sector on its schedule, it would be illegal 20 = NEXUS APRIL — MAY 2001 These three trends— www.nexusmagazine.com