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17th, 2003. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills. Sydney.
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Canc�n : Historic win for developing countries
Prior to the World Trade Organisation's 5th ministerial conference in
Canc�n, Mexico, Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorin said there was
the impression that the fight for social justice had taken place outside
the hall. Now, he said, the fight for social justice is also going on
inside the WTO.
by Anna Pha
And, inside the hall at Canc�n, an historic battle was waged and won. It
is historic not just because it blocked the agenda of the rich
industrialised nations, but for the heightened understanding, unity and
determination of the developing countries.
Amorin was speaking at a press conference organised by the Group of 21
(G21) developing countries. The 21 countries represent more than 50 per
cent of the world's population, and more than 60 per cent of the world's
rural population. They were led by Brazil, India, China and include
Cuba, South Africa, Indonesia, Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador,
Venezuela, Mexico, Egypt, Peru, Guatemala, Philippines and Thailand.
It is a coalition of the poor who were determined to fight to the end
against discriminatory subsidies paid to the farmers of the rich,
developed countries. And that is what they did.
From the start, the ministerial meeting (September 10-14) was doomed to
fail. The draft text pushed the agenda of the industrialised nations and
ignored the demands of the developing countries. It was to be business
as usual, with the undemocratic, secretive processes of the WTO in full
swing - right down to the personal cajoling phone calls from George Bush
to heads of governments.
The US, the European Union, Canada and Japan, known as the "Quad", were
the prime operators, trying to enforce their agenda with the help of WTO
officials.
For the G21 and many other poorer countries, agriculture is a matter of
"life or death".
In the streets outside of the meeting thousands of farmers and
Indigenous people demonstrated. A Korean farmer took his own life
outside the hall - so intense is the opposition of the people of the
developing countries.
Thousands of others took part in conferences, street actions and other
protests in the lead-up to and during the meeting in Canc�n and around
the world.
Huge subsidies
The G21 pointed to the failure of the WTO to act on the more than US$300
billion in subsidies paid every year to the world's wealthiest farmers
which undermine the livelihoods of millions of poor farmers around the
world.
The EU and the US steadfastly refuse to remove these subsidies and open
up their markets to imports at the same time as expecting developing
countries to make huge reductions in tariffs on their imports.
Four of Africa's poorest countries sought a reduction in subsidies paid
to US and European cotton farmers that have ruined African farmers. They
demanded that they be paid US$300 million in compensation because of
this unfair competition. They got nowhere.
While developing countries were seeking justice over agriculture and
market access for their products in the developed countries, the Quad
were pushing a new agenda - for what are known as the "Singapore issues"
or "new issues".
These issues are competition policy, investment, transparency in
government procurement and trade facilitation.
The aim of these policies is to subject the economies of the developing
countries to the complete control of the developed (imperialist)
countries. Their implementation of these policies would place developing
countries at a greater disadvantage, setting back their trade and
development by decades.
They would restrict the ability of governments to regulate foreign
investment or to take measures to develop local enterprises. They would
open up the economies of the developing countries to the advantage of
the big corporations from the US, EU, Japan, Canada, Australia in
particular.
The developing countries reluctantly agreed to discuss the scope
("modalities") of these issues at a Singapore ministerial in 1996 in
exchange for promises on other issues of concern to them. It was agreed
that there would be no negotiations on these issues before consensus had
been reached at the discussion phase.
Consensus is far from being achieved, but that did not stop the Quad
trying to force the pace of negotiations against the will of over 70
developing countries.
The European Union insisted that any concessions on agriculture be
conditional on the acceptance of new rules on foreign investment. This
form of blackmail is not new. Previous promises made by the "Quad" in
return for discussion of the Singapore issues and other significant
trade-offs have, without exception, not been honoured.
This time developing countries said, enough is enough. Their message
was: Carry out previous decisions and fix up problems with existing
agreements before looking at agreements in new areas.
Walk-out
The actual trigger for the breakdown of the talks and the mass walkout
of the representatives of the developing countries was the question of
investment - and walkout they did!
The developing countries still have a long way to go towards achieving
their goals, of seeing a genuine development round of negotiations in
which their needs receive recognition by the rich countries.
The Quad have received a far more serious setback than at Seattle but
have not given up their aims. They are pushing their agenda on many
fronts. They are using the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in
outright blackmail. They are also pursuing bilateral agreements such as
the proposed US Free Trade Agreement with Australia. Where all else
fails they will use their military might to recolonise countries as we
have seen in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The drive for corporate global domination by the US, the EU and the
transnational corporations of other countries will continue.
But, "The developing countries have come into their own", as the
Malaysian International Trade and Investment Minister Rafidah Aziz said.
"This has made it clear that developing countries cannot be dictated to
by anybody".
Or, as Ecuador's Foreign Trade Minister, Ivonne Baki said, "It's not the
end. It's the beginning".
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