Question:
Now the European negotiators want to include drinking water in the GATS agreementany information ?

Answer: The United States' negotiators are figuring out how to respond. They know there is controversy in the U.S. about having GATS cover water. U.S. corporations would like limited coverage in areas where they are competitive with the European corporations. Advocates for environment and justice don't want water covered in GATS. The U.S. is looking for a compromise position. They are willing to propose that GATS "carve out," i.e., exclude, transportation of bulk water across international borders by private companies. (Operation of pipelines is a service.) This would be good from the perspective of citizens and organization who believe water is a RIGHT not a need to be supplied by the market for profit.

But the U.S. is considering a more compromised position on water services within a country such as water treatment, distribution, and sewage treatment. They have suggested limiting the application of GATS in the U.S. to commercial applications. It appears that U.S. corporations want to include commercial applications of water because they think they can compete in some specific commercial applications like water purification for a building, but are not so concerned about serving the municipal markets at this time. This reflects the fact that U.S. players are not doing so well with cities like Indianapolis which used the French company Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux when they privatized their water treatment a couple of years ago.