Development and Cooperation


	Contributions from the Column Studies and reports The world trade system leaves poor countries too little scope Slight rise in German ODA Africa: back to the roots is the wrong direction Humanitarian aid can be impartial, but not neutral Immunisation initiative: Nelson Mandela calls for participation German hearing on GATS: different positions Proposal for insolvency rights buried quietly An oil pipeline		German hearing on GATS: different positions Experts represented different positions on the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), which is currently the subject of negotiations in the World Trade Organisation, at a hearing by the German Bundestag Economics Committee in Berlin on April 7. Representatives of commerce and industry said that in the end the existing regulation of liberalisation by GATS, such as in the sectors of finance, transport and energy, would merely be confirmed under international law. The level of liberalisation as a whole would not be raised. According to a Press statement by the 'attac' network, the European Commission representative, Pierre Defraigne, said GATS had excluded all sovereign state tasks. The attac representative, Thomas Fritz, described that as "deliberate deception". He said that because the European Union had made far-reaching demands on its trade partners, it was to be expected that the EU must make concessions on its side. He described as a success the fact that the Economics Committee hearing had come about at all. "The EU's making a big secret of things no longer functions," Fritz said. "The subject of GATS is on the agenda." The Bundestag already last January demanded that the GATS negotiations must be more transparent.