The U.S. Coalition of Service Industries (CSI or USCSI) is the largest services oriented lobby group in the United States. With prime access to elite government and corporate circles, its various corporate members gain handsomely from international trade agreements, from IMF or World Bank handouts, and from privatization programs...

The U.S. Coalition of Service Industries (CSI or USCSI) is the largest services oriented lobby group in the United States. With prime access to elite government and corporate circles, its various corporate members gain handsomely from international trade agreements, from IMF or World Bank handouts, and from privatization programs.  As well, many USCSI corporate members have been embroiled in the corporate scandals that have rocked the U.S. and the world in the past two years.  You can almost pick at random from the USCSI membership to find a corporation that is either privatizing public services, embroiled in financial controversy, or gaining from the misery imposed by an IMF loan. 

The degree to which members of the USCSI were among the corporations most involved in the recent wave of corporate scandals is disturbingly high.   For example,  Enron, Andersen, and WorldCom were all USCSI members at the time they were hit with the scandals (Enron and Andersen have since left the coalition).  Enron was the company that hid debt from its books in order to artificially inflate its value to shareholders and was also heavily involved in the illegal trading which led to the California energy crisis in 2001.  Andersen was Enron's accountant who let this all happen.  And Worldcom was the corporation that inflated profits by nearly $4bn through deceptive accounting and later went bankrupt (only to reemerge as MCI).  And, we shall see, this is just the tip of the iceberg, as many other USCSI corporations were heavily involved in various forms of illegal and unethical activity.

Further, the USCSI is one of the best examples of how corporations have positioned themselves to heavily influence the structure of trade agreements through the formation of corporate lobby coalitions that are well connected to government.  The USCSI membership uses their collective power to push for more favourable rules in cross-border trade-in-services such as the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the services sections of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).  Here, the direct connection between the corporations involved in the push privatization of services (including many public services) and the push for trade agreements which will provide a legally binding lock-in for privatized services (through GATS and FTAA) is clear.  In short, the USCSI acts as the access point to trade policy for US services corporations.

Looking through this lens of the USCSI's association with both the corporate scandals and the push for ever more free trade, this article is an expos of the USCSI, shedding light on its members' connections to many of the biggest corporate problems and scandals of our time.  After a brief background on the USCSI and its connections to the trade negotiations process (Part I), three social and political exposs will be outlined where USCSI members have been heavily involved:

* Corporate scandals - A look many of the USCSI members which have been implicated in the recent corporate scandals (Part II)
* Public Service Privatization -  An expos of the many CSI members which have been frontrunners in the current rapid and international expansion of privatization of public services, and have a long history of causing social and environmental problems in this pursuit (Part III)
* Public Financing - A look at some of the many USCSI members have profited enormously from International Monetary Fund and/or World Bank project funding at the expense of the people in the countries involved (Part IV).

PART I -  Background: Corporate power and the USCSI

About the US Coalition of Service Industries

The USCSI a relatively unknown group located in a non-descript office tower on Vermont Avenue in Washington, D.C.. The USCSI is the main service industry group lobbying the U.S. government to ensure that services provisions are front and centre in the new rounds of WTO and FTAA negotiations. The USCSI is one of the two most powerful service oriented big business lobby groups in the world (along with European Services Forum [ESF]) currently involved in the negotiation of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) at the WTO. The GATS is a unique multi-country agreement governing international trade and investment in services. It is has been described as an instrument designed first and foremost for the benefit of capitalism and big business.

The USCSI is currently made up of approximately 60 service corporations and corporate associations ( full list of members), including many of the United States' largest, most well known corporations that collectively use the CSI to lobby the US government and other key political bodies.   According to the USCSI website they are "above all an advocacy organization, aggressively representing the interests of its members in all US and international forums where CSI can advance our members' trade expansion goals".  The USCSI proudly boasts that it "played a major role in shaping the [WTO] General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)", a role it continues to play today. [more information on the GATS ]

This is not an exaggerated boast the Director of the WTO Services Division from 1993-2001, David Hartridge has stated that without the enormous pressure generated by the American financial services sector, particularly companies like American Express and Citicorp [CSI members], there would have been no [GATS] services agreement.

How does the USCSI advance its 'trade expansion goals'?

In addition to the influence of making enormous contributions to political campaigns (go to http://www.opensecrets.org/ and search using almost any USCSI member), USCSI  members gain access to the U.S. government and key international agencies through their enormous government lobbying capacity. They lobby the U.S. Congress as well as the Departments of Commerce & Treasury, the US Trade Representative, and senior WTO officials.  Representatives from twenty CSI member corporations also sit on the key committee advising the U.S. government on services trade policy, the International Trade Administrations Industry Sector Advisory Committee on Services (ISAC #13). In fact, these representatives make up 67% of the total who sit on the committee. Together they provide corporate America with access to privatization opportunities abroad and influence over US trade policy decision makers.

And the USCSIs influence has not gone unnoticed. At a February 2002 conference held at the US Department of Commerce, the new WTO Director General, Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi, stated that the USCSI, with its extensive global network and influences in the world has successfully served to advance and secure the interests of its members, more importantly, in shaping US policies and promoting US interests within the international fora, thereby ensuring progressive global market liberalization.  And, of course, the USCSI itself sees the incredible value of such meetings stating that "by working closely with the [US Trade Representative] and the WTO, the group will have a profound impact on the structure, content and results of the current negotiations as we continue to seek market access ... for services companies.

It is at conferences like this where the convergence of the WTO, services coalitions like the USCSI, and government is most obvious.  The conference was keynoted by three highly influential people: Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi, the WTO Director General, Dean OHare, Chair and CEO of the Chubb Corporation and also the chair of the USCSI; and Peter F. Allgeler, the Deputy U.S. Trade Representative.   In addition, the many conference discussion groups consisted of moderators and panelists from the USCSI corporate membership, with  'rapporteurs' from U.S. Government departments such as Commerce, Treasury, Transportation, and the Office of the US Trade Representative.  At such high level meetings like this, the tight knit circle of USCSI corporate members, the US government, and the WTO is made clear.  Through these meetings the USCSI gains access to power that the rest of us can only dream of.

(Continued in Part II)...