Amsterdam • WTO-actie bij PricewaterhouseCoopers
Actie Overleg Cancún - 12.09.2003 17:00
http://www.indymedia.nl/nl/2003/09/13786.shtml

WTO-activisten veranderen bedrijfslogo PricewaterhouseCoopers

Pricewaterhouse

Amsterdam, 12 september 2003

Vandaag, op de tweede dag van de WTO-top in Cancún, hebben wij omstreeks 13.00 uur een bezoek gebracht aan één van de bedrijven die de agenda van Cancún bepalen. Je kunt de WTO niet OVERAL de schuld van geven, wordt critici van de wereldhandelsorganisatie vaak toegevoegd. Dat klopt; het zijn de grote bedrijven die het meest profiteren van de alsmaar voortschrijdende liberalisering van de wereldhandel, en vaak schrijven ze letterlijk de verdragen die bij de WTO afgesloten worden.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is zo'n bedrijf. Hun macht is groot, maar wordt zelden in de openbaarheid gebracht.

PwC is een van de vier grootste internationale accountantbedrijven, en heeft enorm geprofiteerd heeft van de economische globalisering. Het bedrijf levert administratieve dienstverlening aan bedrijven, vooral aan bedrijven die internationaal zaken doen. Naast de aloude boekhoudkundige diensten, leveren ze ook allerhande vormen van onderzoek, advies en ondersteuning aan bedrijven die nieuwe markten willen openbreken.

Maar PwC is ook direct verbonden aan de WTO en de agenda van liberalisering en deregulering die daar heerst. Enkele voorbeelden van de directe rol van PwC:

Kortom: verzet tegen de WTO is niet alleen in Cancún mogelijk. Daarvoor kun je ook aan het Prins Bernhardplein 200, naast het Amstelstation in Amsterdam zijn. Bij de hoofdingang hebben een aangepast logo aan de gevel van het bedrijf bevestigd. PwC betekent nu "Privatise What we Can".

Samen met de demonstranten in Cancún zeggen wij: verzet je tegen de ongecontroleerde macht van het bedrijfsleven, wáár je maar kunt.

Actie Overleg Cancún

Hier nog wat extra informatie en links:

How is PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) connected to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting in Cancun?

Undermining essential services...

PwC are key members of a powerful European lobby group called the European Services Forum (ESF). The ESF argues firmly for governments to open up their service industries to the global market under the controversial WTO agreement GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services). GATS is strongly opposed by many civil society groups because of its potential to open up important services such as water delivery and education to predatory multinationals, with particularly severe impacts in developing countries. The ESF was set up by the European Commission's trade arm (DG Trade) to help the EC (which negotiates for the EU in the WTO) promote the 'benefits' of GATS, and the ESF continues to work closely with the EC to formulate the EU's neoliberal GATS proposals. Of course, the public have no such influence on the EU's proposals!

See, for example: http://www.wtocancun.com,
http://www.wdm.org.uk/campaign/GATS.htm,
http://www.esf.be, http://www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/~skelk/GATS/PwC.pdf

Pushing for the expansion of the WTO...

PwC explicitly endorses the expansion of the WTO's powers. For example, they have explicitly endorsed ESF_s recent position paper which argues for a new WTO agreement on 'Investment', including a mechanism by which corporations can sue governments (as in NAFTA.) There is massive opposition from civil-society (and WTO developing country members) to a WTO Investment agreement, because such an agreement will inevitably increase the power of multinational corporations over the people and governments of the countries they invest in. Many people fear that WTO-Investment will turn into the new MAI (Multilateral Agreement on Investment) which was killed off in 1998.

See, for example: http://www.wtocancun.com,
http://www.investmentwatch.org,
http://www.esf.be/pdf/ESF%20Position%20Paper%20on%20Trade%20&%20Investment%20Final.pdf

Yet more lobby group activity

PwC are members of the UK-based IFSL (International Financial Services, London) lobby group. This group, which argues forcefully for deeper and faster GATS liberalization through their hard-line neoliberal spokesperson Leon Brittan, is extremely influential because of the global competitiveness of the UK's financial services industry. PwC have been happy to explicitly endorse Brittan_s numerous letters to newspapers where he promotes GATS and attempts to discredit GATS critics. When UK NGO 'Save The Children Fund' (SCF) wrote to the Financial Times explaining their conclusion that GATS could severely hurt health services in developing countries, PwC and IFSL were quick to respond to SCF with another letter to the Financial Times, attacking SCF's conclusions and defending GATS.

See: http://www.ifsl.org.uk

Involvement in corporate-state partnerships to undermine critics of the WTO...

In 2001 PwC were one of a number of companies who were discovered working closely with the UK government to promote the GATS agenda and undermine the anti-GATS campaign. This episode, known as the 'LOTIS' affair, was a true corporate-state alliance.

See: http://www.gatswatch.org/LOTIS/

Other stuff...

Beyond WTO issues, PwC have a large role promoting the corporate non-solution to climate change known as 'carbon trading.' They also have a large role promoting privatization, part-privatisation and deregulation because it is part of their business to manage such processes. In 2001 they co-chaired the undemocratic TABD (Transatlantic Business Dialogue) in which US and EU multinationals work closely with US and EU government officials to promote the corporate agenda. This includes blocking environmental regulations, and pushing for more WTO negotiations.

See: http://www.wtocancun.com/tabd.html,
http://www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/~skelk/GATS/PwC.pdf


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