30/10/2001
LATEST DRAFT OF WTO MINISTERIAL SPELLS DISASTER FOR LEAST
DEVELOPED AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, SLAPS GLOBAL CITIZENS
MOVEMENT
A BLATANT LACK OF DEMOCRATIC PROCESS PREVAILS AT THE
WTO AS A "COMPLETE" TEXT IS STEAMROLLED INTO A PROPOSED
LAUNCH OF NEGOTIATIONS DESPITE CONTINUED PROTESTS BY
MAJORITY OF WTO MEMBERS AND CIVIL SOCIETY
A new draft of a Ministerial Declaration for the WTO's upcoming Doha summit
released this weekend was repudiated strongly by civil society groups from around
the world today. The latest attempt to prepare a document for the WTO meeting,
which is planned for November 9-13 in Doha, Qatar, was met with outrage by civil
society and disbelief and frustration by developing countries and Least Developed
Countries (LDCs) because the tone and content of the new text presumes a
consensus on a future WTO agenda which does not exist. Non-governmental
organizations from around the world called on their governments to denounce
this
text as illegitimate and to oppose it being moved forward for use at the WTO
Doha
Ministerial.
This text follows on a previous draft declaration that was widely rejected
by
developing country WTO delegates. The new text continues to exclude the
developing countries' key demands but includes many proposals to which these
WTO
Members adamantly object. Last month's consultations at the WTO have resulted
in
a further breach of due process by steamrolling ahead with a version that lacks
any
options or "brackets" around a text that is still heavily disputed.
This creates a
serious breach of democratic process whereby months of repeated interventions
by
the majority of the WTO's own membership have been dismissed.
In contrast to this text, in reality there remain deep disagreements among
WTO
Member nations about the organization's future agenda. Since before the Seattle
WTO Ministerial, most developing country WTO Members have demanded that the
existing flaws and imbalances in the WTO be addressed, but the U.S. has led
unbending opposition to this "implementation agenda." The European
Union push for
expansion of WTO disciplines into new issues, such as investment, competition
policy and procurement, has been resoundingly rejected by developing nations.
There
are significant divisions around the agriculture negotiations where developing
countries are pushing for development concerns such as food security and rural
development, while the US and EU continue to protect their markets through export
subsidies and credits.
Meanwhile, the list of provisions that developing nation WTO Members have
identified for urgent review and repair before any WTO negotiations on new issues
are actually more watered down in the latest text. Under existing WTO agreements,
the poorest countries' share of world trade has declined and many poor countries'
development and health policies have come under attack as violations of WTO
rules.
The new draft responds to these demands by effectively restating the U.S. hardline
position that none of these issues will be addressed without further concessions
by
the developing countries.
The new draft text is also viewed as a slap in the face to the global civil
society
movement of peasant farmers and fisherfolk, workers, environmentalists who have
worked together internationally for years before the Seattle Ministerial and
since.
Many civil society and labor groups have unified around an effort, dubbed the
"Our
World Is Not for Sale: WTO-Shrink or Sink" campaign, which calls for
transformational change to the WTO. The demands of these groups, which include
an array of mass movements and organizations from the developing and developed
world and global labor and farmer organizations, were also uniformly dismissed
in the
latest draft Ministerial text.
The recalcitrance of the WTO Secretariat and the few rich nations who have
greatest
pull on the WTO agenda to address the developing country and civil society demands
is pushing the Doha Ministerial towards an outcome that may either spell disaster
for
the majority of its members or another Seattle: an outright rejection of an
invalid text.
Signatories of statement:
Alliance for Democracy, U.S.
Contact Ruth Caplan (Washington DC): 202-244-0561
Arab NGO Network for Development, Lebanon
Contact Ziad Abdel Samad (Beirut): +961-1-319-366
ECOROPA, France
Contact Agnes Bertrand (Sauve): 33-4-66-77-0704
Focus on the Global South, Thailand
Contact Aileen Kwa (Geneva): 41-22-791-8050
Friends of the Earth - International
Contact: Alexandra Wandel (Brussels) +32-2-542-0185 or Ronnie Hall (London)
+44-1243-602-756
Global Exchange, U.S.
Contact: Juliette Beck (San Francisco): 415-255-7296 x 254
IBON Foundation, Philippines
Contact Tony Tujan (Manila): +632-714-1580
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, U.S.
Contact Shefali Sharma (Geneva): +41-22-789-0724 and Sophia Murphy
(Minneapolis) +612-870-3454
Institute for the Re-localization of the Economy, France
Contact Agnes Bertrand (Sauve): 33-4-66-77-0704
Oxfam-Solidarite, Belgium and L'Unite de Recherche de Formation et
d'Information sur la Globalisation (URFIG)
Contact Dr. Raoul Marc Jennar (Brussels): +32 478 913 812
Public Citizen, U.S.
Contact Margrete Strand (Washington DC): +202-454-5106
Public Services International
Contact Mike Waghorne (Ferney-Voltaire): +33 4 50 40 11 70 and Alice Carl
(Ferney-Voltaire): +33 4 50 40 11 64
Via Campesina, International
Contact Nico Verhagen (Brussels): +32-2-343-8444