via greens list, apologies for x-posting:
Dirty Tactics Move Into Higher Gear At Fourth WTO Ministerial: Invasion
of the Six Green Men
Third World Network-Africa (Accra)
PRESS RELEASE
November 12, 2001
Posted to the web November 12, 2001
Tetteh Hormeku Accra
The undemocratic and manipulative methods which have characterised the
operations of the WTO have moved into a higher gear barely six hours
after the official opening of the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the
World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Doha, Qatar.
Six individuals with undefined and seemingly open-ended powers have been
appointed in an untransparent manner to work out the elements of a
consensus document which will be finally adopted as the Ministerial
Declaration. Operating without reference to any established and commonly
agreed procedures, these six individuals, named as the "friends of the
Chair" of the Conference, are expected to conduct consultations with
delegates, and out of these consultations produce what they judge to be
the points of consensus for adoption in the Ministerial Declaration.
Many observers in Doha see this development as a worsening of the
undemocratic, secretive and manipulative "green room" methods which
excluded many African and other developing countries and led to the
collapse of the third Ministerial Conference in Seattle two years ago.
This time, the undemocratic methods and powers of the "green room" have
been concentrated in the hands of six individual men. Speaking at a
press briefing, Martin Khor of the Third World Network, noted that the
"green room" has now become "green men".
The six "Friends of the Chair", who were announced to wide-spread
consternation of developing country delegates, are supposed to deal with
six subject matters on which there are to be consultations. They include
the Minister of Trade of Canada, who is to deal with Singapore issues of
investment, competition and government procurement. Mexico will deal
with the issues of TRIPS; Chile, the issues of Environment; Singapore,
to handle Agriculture; Switzerland, to handle Implementation issues; and
South Africa to deal with rules of the WTO. All these countries support
the launch of negotiations on all or some of the controversial new
issues.
The criteria by which they were selected remains a secret to most
delegates; so too the identification of the subject matters for
consultation. They were announced in a way which left delegates no room
for objection. Indeed the entire process surrounding the "six green men"
has been described as a well-rehearsed coup d'etat carried out with the
WTO secretariat in charge.
The process began with the opening ceremony of the Fourth Ministerial
Conference on Friday, 9 November. The WTO secretariat contrived to
smuggle the disputed draft declaration prepared from Geneva into the
simple opening ceremony. Most developing countries have already raised
serious objections to the draft declaration.
Thus after the Emir of Qatar and others had made their grand ceremonial
speeches, and in the melee of the departure of his Eminence, Ambassador
Stuart Harbinson, the Chairman of the General Council then presented his
now infamous draft declaration. Since this was not a working but simply
a ceremonial session, and in the melee of the making way for the Emir to
take leave his guests, the delegates did not have the chance or see it
fit to object, as they would have, to Ambassador Harbinson's presenting
his disputed text as the working document.
The full significance of this manoeuvre hit delegates on the morning of
the following day, Saturday 10. At a meeting of the Heads of Delegations
of all the member countries, the Qatari Minister of Trade, who by virtue
of being the host of the Ministerial Conference is also the Chair of the
Conference, announced to delegates that, as they (the delegates) had
agreed at the opening ceremony, the text presented by Ambassador
Harbinson is now the working document for the entire Conference. On the
basis of this he then announced a work plan to carry discussion forward.
This plan included the appointment of the six "green men". Then he
announced a schedule of discussions on identified subjects starting
immediately with agriculture. From the reports, what transpired after
this was almost farcical.
Apparently, after announcing his schedule, the Chairman was about to
proceed immediately to discussion of the issue of agriculture when the
WTO Director-General, sitting with him on the high table, drew his
attention to the fact that some delegates wanted to raise issues with
the procedure. Not knowing that the micro-phones were on, the Chairman
was reported to have whispered something like: "but we are not supposed
to give time for those kinds of discussions", to the hearing of all
delegates. He relented, however, and developing countries, including
India, Uganda and Zimbabwe, raised serious questions of procedure for
redress. Without waiting for those questions to be addressed, he
proceeded to invite other countries to speak on the topic of
agriculture, but they declined.
The upshot was that the Chairman merely noted the points of procedure
raised and proceeded to have the day's business as he had outlined it
discussed. In short, he listened, but simply ignored what was said, and
proceeded as if nothing contrary had been said against his announced
agenda.
The tactic of simply ignoring contrary views has now emerged as part of
the arsenal of tricks being employed by the powerful members of the WTO
to sideline the demands of the developing countries. Instead of not
consulting as in the past, the trick now is to consult but ignore views
contrary to the person doing the consultation. This was exactly the
method adopted by the Director-General of the WTO, together with the
Chairman of the General Council, Ambassador Harbinson, during the
discussions in Geneva in the preparation of the draft declaration which
has now been tabled as the working document of the conference.
It will be recalled that at the end of September, Amb. Harbinson
produced his first draft declaration. Developing countries bitterly
denounced as imbalanced because it included only the issues raised by
developed countries, while excluding the issues raised by the developing
countries. The developing countries then re-stated their issues,
together with specific sentences that should be included in a revised
draft. Amb.
Harbinson listened to all this, but produced a second draft which
excluded even those issues for developing countries that were in the
first draft; and did include any of their proposals for revising the
first draft.
This throws light on the role that six" green men" are will be playing
during the on-going Ministerial Conference. As stated above, the six
individuals will operate without any procedure as to who they should
consult and how. Nor is there any procedure to check if the views of the
people he is consulting are being reflected in whatever document he
produces and therefore in the final document it is meant to feed into.
And finally there is not mechanism by which delegates can add other
subject matter to those identified by the green men.
In short, the Friends of the Chairman have been set up to operate
according to their own wisdom, as to what is basis of consensus, and
using their own methods. There are two pointers to what is likely to the
content of this wisdom of the individual green men? All the five
individual friends of the Chair are from countries that support the
launch of negotiations on one or other of the new issues. Secondly, at a
briefing to US NGOs, the US trade delegation gave indication about its
involvement with the design and implementation of the plan to appoint
the six friends of the Chair as the working method for the Ministerial
Conference.
Thus, the "six green men" represents a collusion between the management
of the WTO, the Ministerial Conference and the powerful countries to
ensure that the outcome of the Ministerial reflect their will and
interest. In the process they have shown that they are desperately
prepared to ride rough-shod over the rules and proper procedure.
Accounts from delegations so far about how the whole set-up seems to be
working gives cause for worry. Some of the "friends of the chair" have
virtually set up court waiting for the delegations to come and talk to
them. Others have decided to conduct one-on-one discussions with
selected country-delegates. In these one-on-one meetings, one delegate
has no way of knowing what other country delegation may have said. Each
country has to rely on the "honesty" of the particular "green man" to
faithfully convey their own positions to the other delegates and
vice-versa.
Already there are accounts emerging to the effect that some delegates
positions are being misrepresented to other delegations. This is
especially dangerous in the cases where some developing countries have
adopted common positions and platforms, as in the case of the Africa
group. The one-on-one consultation as seems to be proceeding provides
opportunity for fragmenting the front as different stories are told
about this or that delegation presenting a different position from the
previously stated or agreed common position.
Ultimately, this is a set-up designed to frustrate developing countries
and subjugate them. They have to jump through three handicaps in order
to promote their interests in the on-going negotiations. First they
arrived in Doha with an agenda for discussion which excluded their
points of view. So rather than a balanced text in which every body's
issues are taken as the point of negotiation, developing countries now
have to fight for their issues to be included in the text in order to
begin the battle of negotiations. Secondly, if they manage to achieve
this, they then have to withstand pressures, blackmail, bribery and
threats from the developed countries in order to stand by their
positions on the issues being negotiated. On top of all this, thirdly,
they now have to deal with a process which is calculated to make it
impossible for them to include their issues in the negotiating agenda.
This is the essence of the outrageous situation developing countries are
confronted with at the fourth WTO ministerial conference. How they
respond to this will determine not only their future, but indeed the
future of the multi-lateral trading system as a whole.
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