Focus on Trade

IN THIS ISSUE:

With just two months to go before the 5th WTO ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico, opinions are divided about what is likely to be achieved. Some analysts, such as Focus' Aileen Kwa, are seeing all the signs of Doha revisited, with discussions in Geneva going "underground", draft texts appearing from nowhere and the possibility that the rich countries will, once again, ram through agreements using all the means at their disposal. On the other side - perhaps employing the precautionary principle -- WTO Director General Supachai Panitchpakdi and EU trade commission Pascal Lamy are in "counter-spin" mode, cautiously labelling Cancun a "stocktaking" rather than a milestone.

Agriculture has been one of the main sticking points and following last week's "breakthrough" in reform of the EU's common agricultural policy, some analysts wondered whether there might be a similar breakthrough in the WTO agriculture negotiations. "No" seems to be the answer, judging from the reaction of the Philippines representative to the WTO (see below) who assessment is that narrowing the enormous gap between what developing countries want and what developed countries are offering requires far more than either the EU or the US is prepared to give. Although the language of the Philippines' delegate is opaque and technical, reading the longer piece that follows on the decimation of the Philippines agricultural economy following its entry into the Agreement on Agriculture provides plenty of flesh and blood to support the bones of the ambassador's argument.

For many "old-time" German Green activists, the McPlanet conference, held in Berlin 27-29 June and attended by more than 1,500 (mainly young) activists and would-be activists, was not only breakthrough in linking radical green and "no-globo" politics but a sign that the floundering German environmental movement may be on the verge of a revival. Also significant was the overwhelmingly negative assessment of last year's WSSD in Johannesburg by many leading green activists. This is a welcome sign of a break with traditional NGO politics which has, in the past, worked almost entirely inside the logic of the existing multilateralism. Barbara Unmussig, co-director of the Green party's Heinrich Boll Foundation captured this new orientation in her closing remarks to the conference when she said "just because there is a crisis of multilateralism does not mean that we should support the WTO." We have included here the full text of Walden Bello's speech to the McPlanet conference: it's a good read.

Finally - but not least -- there is an invitation from the UNDP to join the discussion forum "The Multilateral Trade Regime seen through a Global Public Goods Lens." Focus supports this initiative to engage in a wider public debate on trade and hope many of our readers - and not only those who are trade specialists and activists - will contribute to the discussion. The details of how are below.

PS: Apologies for the email that was unintentionally sent to the Focus on Trade list last week. Sorry to unnecessarily clog-up your email boxes.