Please note!

August 11, 2003

Hon. Pierre Pettigrew

Minister for International Trade

House of Commons

Parliament Buildings

Ottawa (ON) K1A 0A6

Email: Pettigrew.P@parl.gc.ca

Fax: (613) 995-9926

Dear Hon. Pierre Pettigrew

In your capacity as Minister for International Trade, I would like you to represent my interest at the World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico in September 2003, concerning publicly funded libraries and the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)

It is very fortunate that Canada has not yet committed library services in the GATS. In fact, my hopes in writing this letter is that Canada will exempt library services from the GATS.

Unfortunately, there are three facts of grave concern to me, which lead me to believe that this will not be the case.

First since 2001, thirteen members of the WTO have already made the commitment to open negotiations on "Libraries, archives, museums and other cultural services."

Second, GATS Article XIX, ensures that successive rounds of negotiations will aim to achieve a progressively higher level of liberalization.

Finally, and most disturbing, is the questionnaire sent to public libraries in 2000 by the Canadian government asking them to identify areas where they might have “export” interests. The government is clearly trying to sell the GATS to librarians by only telling them half the issues surrounding this trade deal.

These three facts clearly show that library services in Canada are not safe from the liberalization policies of the GATS.

It is these policies that will severely threaten publicly funded libraries and librarian professional standards.

Indeed, under the GATS, for-profit library services that set up in Canada could compete against publicly funded libraries. Because of the National Treatment rule in the GATS, foreign companies would have to be treated as well as or better than any national supplier. Since the agreement will cover subsidies, these corporations might be able to argue that they should receive equal funding from the government.

Furthermore, under the GATS Article VI, professional standards could come under challenge as a trade barrier. The Council for Trade in Service is empowered to set up review panels to assess whether qualification requirements and procedures, technical standards and licensing requirements constitute unnecessary barriers to trade in services.

I am not alone in questioning the safety of publicly funded library services under the GATS. Many different library organizations, such as the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA), the American Library Association (ALA), the British Columbia Library Association (BCLA), and the Canadian Library Association (CLA), are very uneasy about the WTO/GATS. In fact, the CLA has taken the position to “support the creation of an exemption for library services.” They go on to state that their “fundamental position is opposition to the WTO/GATS as presently outlined in the WTO documents”.

In conclusion Hon. Minister, my hope is that in all future WTO/GATS negotiations, you will acknowledge the fact that libraries are a public good and should be exempt from all GATS negotiations. Libraries are “unique social organizations dedicated to providing the broadest range of information and ideas to the public regardless of age, religion, social status, race, gender, and language” (CLA, 1999). Intellectual freedom, free and equitable access to information and cultural expression form the basis of long established library traditions.

Sincerely yours,

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