Dear Friends,

I am writing on behalf of a number of Bolivian, Uruguayan and Brazilian activists to you to ask your support, suggestions and advice in the next 6 months for building together a global campaign calling for water to be taken out of the WTO as well as bilateral trade and investment agreements. A number of us are already focusing our struggles in these areas, and have together organised various actions which are diverse but had an increasing impact. It is clear that free trade agreements in particular (as has been seen by the current legal actions against Argentina) greatly affect the rights of our countries. However there is also growing worldwide resistance to treating water as a “commodity.” We therefore feel that co-ordinating our different actions together with different networks of activists could build a large global campaign which has a chance of getting the theme of water out of different free trade agreements.

The campaign would focus on the following areas:

* In the WTO, the primary aim is to get a group of countries to support the campaign by proposing a different status for water than other services and goods.
* In terms of bilateral trade and investment agreements, the proposal is that governments, negotiators, water and sanitation authorities are informed and where possible take a position against their incorporation into these agreements.
* The aim is also to promote initiatives at constitutional level such as in Uruguay or in laws which restrict the inclusion of water in international trade agreements.
* Where free trade and investment agreements have been signed, it will be necessary to develop campaigns for renegotiations or laws that in the implementation of these agreements put access to water as a fundamental human right that comes before commercial or investment agreements.

To launch this campaign (which will last several years), we have
three key moments in the coming year:

a) The Third Summit of the Peoples in Mar de Plata,
b) The Sixth Ministerial meeting of the WTO in Hong Kong,
c) The Fourth World Water Forum in Mexico.

The plan is to work as much in the official forums as the alternative civil society forums during these three events. The idea is that in Mar del Plata, we could produce a draft civil society declaration that can be developed and enlarged in the run-up to Hong Kong. At
both the Summit of the Peoples and in Hong Kong, we want to build on the unity of various initiatives linked to water to organize joint events that reinforce our alliances and unite our efforts. In Mexico, we would organize a session in the official forum, promote
one or several sessions in parallel events and find official delegates in the Ministerial to put forward the issues. In these three events, we would help build a plan of action for the campaign and a strategy for lobbying and putting pressure on official sectors in our
different countries.

To begin the campaign, we are developing the following tools:

1. An e-discussion list which you can join by sending an email
to [email protected]
2. A website, whose name, we shall decide together along with
a slogan www.wateroutofwto.org,
www.waternotforsale.org, www.aguanoesmercancia.org
3. An initial draft declaration to initiate the e-discussion.

We look forward to your comments, suggestions, and proposals for taking water out of Free Trade Agreements.