This is a call to the Ministers meeting in Cancun to halt the current GATS negotiations and keep essential services, such as water, out of the WTO.

Any country making GATS commitments in water would bind such liberalization for the future, making it effectively impossible for it to withdraw, even if service provision is unaffordable to the poor, the water service is of poor quality, or a future government wishes to change the policy.

In July 2002, as part of the ongoing GATS negotiations, the EU submitted demands that 109 countries, requesting ambitious levels of market access for its corporations. This included requests to 72 countries, several of them least developed countries, requesting access to their water services. The U.S. also submitted extensive and controversial demands, which under the guise of 'transparency' render domestic decision-making vulnerable to foreign commercial interests.