Maine (Alone) Seeks Exemption from GATS Library Agreement

-- Library Journal, 5/1/2006

Maybe the state of Maine is being extra careful, or maybe citizens are appropriately wary, but residents have successfully pressured Gov. John Baldacci to ask the Bush administration to exclude the state from General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) treaty provisions related to libraries, archives, and museums. In March, the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva renewed periodic negotiations on treaty specifics. In his April 5 letter to U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Rob Portman, Baldacci pointed out that "few developed countries have committed libraries to the terms of the GATS"—which gives foreign corporations the right to buy or establish new service-sector companies within the territories of other countries—but the United States had done so and thus compromised taxpayer support.

Though Portman had offered some assurances in an August 8, 2005 letter to American Library Association executive director Keith Michael Fiels, his letter also contained some loopholes, saying that his office would argue that "U.S. GATS commitments do not impact governmental support for core library services provided free of charge to the general public." Steve Norman, chair of the Maine Library Association's (MLA) Legislative Committee, said that MLA was approached by the Maine Fair Trade Commission, one of two state agencies nationwide concerned with fair trade issues. "I think that our asking and Governor Baldacci's asking that libraries be exempted is an important early staking out of a boundary." He said library services such as wholesale purchasing of rights to digital products might be jeopardized.

Public Citizen warns that "a GATS challenge could be brought by a nation interested in supporting the commercial library services industry with federal, state and local grant monies." Miriam Nisbet, legislative counsel in the American Library Association's Washington Office, said that the USTR has "given assurances that they are aware of our issues, that they do not think anything about the GATS would jeopardize government funding for libraries or other cultural institutions. Does that mean we shouldn't worry about it. No."