URFIG Document - Analysis about WTO
WTO:
ONE MONTH BEFORE THE MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
THE
WESTERN EMPIRE AT WORK
(Dr
Raoul Marc JENNAR, 9 October 2001)
Never
has the world been as deeply divided as it is at the dawn of the 21st
century. Never has the gap between
the living standards of industrialised countries and those of developing nations
been as wide. Never has the abyss
between the North and the South been as deep.
Never has the opposition between the governments of the North and the
governments of the South been as confrontational, exactly one month before the
start of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) 4th Ministerial
Conference which is due in Doha, capital of Qatar.
Industrialised
countries carry the primary responsibility for a situation that can only be
qualified as catastrophic for the human community.
They have deliberately compromised the incredible opportunity offered by
the end the cold war and the world division into two ideological blocks.
Instead of putting in place a new world order based on law and
solidarity, the winning ideology, brandished by the United States and the
European Union, has sought to impose its dogmas.
These have been translated into the Marrakech Agreements, signed in 1994
at the end of the Uruguay Round. These
Agreements are unbalanced, creating obligations for developing countries of
which the rich countries are exempted. The
Agreements are implemented in an unbalanced way by a WTO resolutely at the
service of rich countries and their supranational corporations.
Since
Seattle, where they refused a new round of negotiations which would introduce
more issues under the WTO’s control, developing countries – which make up
for the overwhelming majority of the 142 Member States of the WTO – have, week
after week in Geneva, asked that the commitment taken in Marrakech be respected;
that is, that an evaluation of the existing agreements in relation to their
socio-economic, environmental and cultural impact be undertaken and reviewed
accordingly. Rich countries, led by
the European Union and the USA, have systematically opposed the most categorical
of refusals.
This
refusal has once again been vividly expressed on the 19 September in Geneva
where the United States, showing an advanced degree of brutality, and the
European Union, through the hypocrisy of presenting a document which makes show
of generosity, have refused any modification whatsoever of the Agreement on
intellectual property rights, a modification which developing countries had
asked for so as to guarantee the access to essential medicines.
For the West, it is a matter, first and foremost, of protecting the
lavish profits reaped by pharmaceutical companies.
Not
only do rich countries refuse to admit the failure of their dogmas with regards
to the immense majority of the planet, they persist in doing so with an
arrogance that contradicts their own very appropriate declarations concerning
the fight against poverty. The
European Union has taken the lead of a frantic campaign in favour of a new round
of negotiations which would include the broadest issues in order to extend the
most radical free-exchange throughout the planet.
Their regulation of world trade translates, in practice, to a planetary
deregulation creating, for the corporations of the North, the widest space ever
opened to satisfy their rapacity. This
space is nothing less than the entire globe.
Yet,
they are confronted to a resistance which their arrogance did not prepare them
for: at the end of June and then, at the end of July, during meetings organised
at the WTO in Geneva, it was clear that no agreement between rich countries and
developing countries had been reached concerning a new round.
At the end of July, of the 20 issues that the European Union wished to
include in this new round, the necessary consensus was not reached despite the
many pressures of all kinds exerted by both, the European Commission and a
number of governments who have chosen to silence these disagreements and hide
what amounts to neo-colonial behaviour from their own public opinion.
Et the end of July, the 49 poorest countries met at a conference in
Tanzania during which they declared their opposition to a new round.
In Abuja (Nigeria), on the 24 September, despite the many attempts,
particularly those of the European Commission, aiming to convince these
countries to change their opinion, the African ministers unanimously reiterated
this position.
Africa,
through a single voice, declared that “African countries are not the ones
asking for new multilateral negotiations on new issues; they do not have the
capacity to fulfil the obligations which would result from these negotiations;
they are not convinced that the liberalisation of these new issues would be of
any benefit to them; they are preoccupied by additional obligations and by the
danger of an increase in the competencies of the WTO; there is no consensus
whatsoever amongst the members of the WTO to launch such negotiations and that
the different WTO working groups must continue examining this issue.”
In
Asia, India has repeated its hostility towards any new round.
The 33 Asian and Pacific countries met in Bangkok on the 28 September.
They denounced the ambiguous character of the documents presented by the
WTO concerning the upcoming ministerial conference.
They declared to prefer renegotiating the Marrakech Agreements rather
than a new round.
Of
this massive resistance to the demands of rich countries, the European Union
cares little. Not any more than the
United States does or, for that matter, any other industrialised countries. With the complacency, and perhaps even the complicity of the
media, they have chosen to adopt the most complete silence with regards to the
positions of developing countries and do not miss any opportunity to try to
convince public opinion that their viewpoint is shared by the countries of the
South and that the opposition stems from “irresponsible” westerners who
campaign within NGOs.
It
is indeed true that, recently, the fear of certain social democrat political
parties with regards to the success of anti-globalisation demonstrations has
incited them to declare that they wish to “humanise globalisation”.
And yet, they continue, at the same time, to support the mandate
entrusted to the European Commission, a mandate which is totally opposed to any
notion of humanising globalisation. As if those who once were the defenders of
colonialism and the protagonists of colonial wars could be credible when they
speak about humanism! Their
humanism is nothing more than the arrogant conviction of a supposedly
“European civilising mission”.
On
the 26 September, rich countries took a step further.
They inspired two documents prepared by the WTO which they hope to see
adopted at the next ministerial conference.
The first document is the ministerial declaration draft proposal which
should officially open the new round. None
of the expectations formulated by the countries of the South have been taken
into account. All of the demands of
rich countries have been integrated in the text.
The second document is a document the status of which is unclear and
which contains set of vague promises regarding an eventual review process of the
implementation of the existing agreements.
Both
texts have been considered as “a dirty slap” by developing countries.
On the 2 October, the Ambassador of Tanzania to the WTO spoke in the name
of the 49 Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and reminded the assembly that the
LDCs were not prepared for a new round and that they did not have the capacity
to participate to such negotiations no more than they were ready to fulfil the
obligations which would ensue from them. The
Ambassador of Malaysia asked that rich countries cease to exert pressures on
developing countries.
No
doubt in view of serving the atmosphere of the moment, the European
commissioner, Pascal Lamy, declared, with utmost seriousness, that, on the 1st
October, “a new round will help fight terrorism” . . .
The
duplicity of European countries knows no limits.
The declarations of our governments concerning the fight against poverty
are perhaps soothing. Yet, at the
same time and in the places where decisions are taken, they are adopting
positions which increase the poverty and dependence of the peoples of the South
with regards to the North.
It
is urgent to convince each and every one of our parliamentarians and ministers
to face up to their responsibilities. Because,
as a last resort, the policy implemented by the European Union and the WTO stems
from decisions taken in each of our countries.
Researcher
within Oxfam Solidarité (Brussels) and the URFIG (Paris)