From Córdoba to Washington: WTO/GATS and Latin American Education [1] We want to acknowledge and thank M. Ginsburg and O. Espinoza and T. Frater for their comments on an earlier version of this paper. As usual, the responsibility for the content is ours.

This article examines the educational dimension of the General Agreement on Trade in Services of the World Trade Organisation (WTO/GATS), with a special focus on its potential implications for the Latin American region. This ambitious strategy to transform education into a tradable commodity in a global economy cannot be isolated from other international treaties and from the neoliberal policies that have impacted Latin American societies for the last two decades. In this regard, we argue that the WTO/GATS educational agenda has the potential to further the project of privatisation to a higher level, opening the door for international competition. In a continental political economy characterised by large asymmetries in educational export markets and in interactive technologies, such competition will not take place on an even playing field, as the USA is better positioned than most countries in the region to take advantage of a 'free educational market'. If the proposed WTO/GATS goes ahead in such a context, Latin American countries can be adversely affected in terms of their sovereignty on cultural policy, the quality and accessibility of their public education systems, the training of scientists and researchers oriented towards national development, and the contribution of their education systems to the common good and to the equalisation of opportunities in largely unequal societies. We recommend that Latin American governments do not commit themselves to the educational agenda of the WTO/GATS before holding a wide process of public participation, information and reflection in national parliaments and in civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]