Netherlands concerned about GATS1 February 2003
Increasing numbers of European parliamentarians are becoming concerned about the potentially vast scope of GATS.
In February, a parliamentary debate in the Netherlands not only called for the 31 March GATS offers deadline to be put back, but also called for clarification of the controversial public services exemption.
A service supplied in "the exercise of governmental authority" is excluded from the GATS. However this is further defined as "any service which is supplied neither on a commercial basis, nor in competition with one or more service suppliers".
On this basis, only public services which are 100% provided by government would be safe from negotiations. In the UK this would exclude education and health services which have private service providers operating in those sectors, and therefore make them subject to GATS requests.
