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UNCTAD and Govt. of India have called for submissions on core concerns |
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Thursday, 24 November 2005 |
UNCTAD and Govt. of India have called for submissions on core concerns
regarding the WTO negotiations from different interest groups. Below is a
letter with a possible set of issues people’s movements and mass
organisations could look at:
Dear Friends,
UNCTAD has put out an advertisement soliciting responses from civil society
in India on what should be India’s position in the Hong Kong WTO ministerial
along with core concerns. Below is a list of demands from various movements
and civil society networks that people can use to send in submissions to
UNCTAD. Groups/movements/people’s organisations/networks can use these
demands from the points given below and adapt them to their own language and
send them directly to UNCTAD to Celine Fernandes at
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
or at postal address: Taj Ambassador Hotel, 2
Sujan Singh Park, New Delhi – 110 003; Fax No. 91 11 24635000
In solidarity,
Shalmali Guttal – Focus on the Global South,
Souparna Lahiri – Delhi Forum
Overall, there should be no further liberalisation in any sector, until
comprehensive assessments of the impacts of past liberalisation on
agriculture, services and industry have been conducted, and measures taken to
counter the adverse effects of liberalisation.
Agriculture:
No further liberalization of agriculture trade. Tariffs and other forms of
protection against imports at present offer the best ways to guarantee the
ability of peasant farmers to make a living from agriculture; tariffs must
not be lowered, and each country should have the right to protect its
farmers. Overall, India must demand a full end to the subsidies regimes in
wealthy countries because they facilitate the dumping of cheap (subsidized)
agriculture goods in developing countries.
In the short term:
India must insist that the Blue Box—where the US is hiding its subsidies—be
disciplined.
India must demand that subsidies in the Green Box—where most wealthy
countries hide their subsidies—should be restricted.
Reinstate Quantitative Restrictions (QRs) and reserve the right to impose QRs
on all goods to protect domestic markets in instances of import surges, and
to protect rural livelihoods and development.
The dumping of agricultural products must stop without any preliminary
conditions. Announcement of a schedule for the phase-out of export subsidies
by the EU and US should not be seen as meaningful concessions and should not
serve as a reason for developing countries to give in on other agreements or
to sign any agreement on agriculture in the WTO.
Services (under the General Agreement on Trade in Services—GATS):
Call for an immediate halt on negotiations on services liberalisation under
the GATS.
Oppose all proposals for “benchmarking” or “complementary approaches” to
services liberalisation. Countries must have the freedom to liberalise their
service sectors at their own pace and according to their own specific
structural conditions, with adequate domestic regulations, and legal and
institutional measures to counteract the social and economic costs of
services liberalisation. This is especially important in light of the ongoing
privatisation of key sectors in India under its so called “reform programmes”
undertaken at the insistence of the World Bank, the IMF and the Asian
Development Bank.
Reject Mode 4 concessions as an incentive to open up India’s services sectors
to liberalisation. Gains--if any--from Mode 4 will benefit skilled,
white-collar professionals who already have sufficient opportunities to move
across borders and more important, foreign corporations who will be able to
reduce their operating costs by importing cheaper professional expertise from
India. On the other hand, semi and unskilled workers will be blocked from
movement across international borders as before under increasingly tightening
immigration laws and “economic needs tests” demanded by rich countries. Mode
4 does not promise any relief for the unemployment problem in India, since
the EU, US and other rich countries will likely liberalize entry only for the
most highly skilled professionals from India and other developing countries,
thus worsening brain drain.
Oppose all attempts to introduce the liberalisation of investment and
government procurement of services through Mode 3 (permitting foreign
service-providers to establish a commercial presence in the country) and
Article VI: 4 (on domestic regulation) respectively of the GATS. India must
defend its right and ability to use domestic regulation and procurement of
services and goods as tools to protect the interests of its citizens, and
strengthen its domestic services sectors and industries.
Demand that an inter-sectoral team appointed by the Indian Parliament conduct
a comprehensive assessment of the impact of past liberalisation and
privatisation of services. Such an assessment must especially examine impacts
on a) the access of ordinary Indians – particularly economically and socially
vulnerable communities--to timely, affordable and quality services; b)
changes in levels, patterns and nature of employment; c) livelihoods, social
and economic security, and welfare, particularly among vulnerable
communities; d) domestic Small and Medium Enterprises, and; e) the ability
and willingness of the central and state governments to enact and implement
regulations that protect the public interest and welfare.
Non Agriculture Market Access (NAMA)
Negotiations in NAMA must be stopped altogether since the potential negative
impacts of de-industrialization from NAMA agreement are great. NAMA was never
a priority under the Doha Declaration. However, if NAMA negotiations do
continue, current formulas for tariff reduction and tariff binding in NAMA
must be opposed.
Developing countries should not be coerced into binding their remaining
tariff lines. Binding will limit the options for developing countries to
nurture their infant industries and hasten the process of
de-industrialization. This is especially so in LDCs, most of who have already
been forced to undertake unilateral liberalization under the structural
adjustment programmes imposed by the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund.
Fisheries must be removed from NAMA negotiations, and the WTO should get out
of fisheries altogether.
Process
All negotiations and discussions must be fully participatory and transparent.
The Five Interested Parties (FIPs), the "new QUAD" and other such arbitrary
and exclusive groupings must be disbanded. All delegations must have full
freedom to participate in negotiations as they consider fit.
India must come out of the FIPS and new Quad. It must instead work to
strengthen the solidarity among developing countries to resist further
liberalisation. |
