GATS and the democratic process: is there a lack of democracy in decision making?
Any changes or improved market access negotiated as part of a trade round would be finally determined by a future WTO Ministerial Conference by consensus. To be acceptable there will need to be a balance of overall interest to all WTO Members. In the European Union the Council of Ministers will first have to give assent to the Agreement on the basis of a proposal from the European Commission. In the UK, the terms of that proposal would have had first to go through the Parliamentary scrutiny process.
