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Focus on the Global South
Agreeing a framework carries very serious consequences: once agreed upon, it cannot be modified and it can take several years before it is revisited. June 2004.
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The Fifth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO), that took place from 10 to 14 September 2003, in Cancun, Mexico, ended without agreement on the Ministerial Text. It is the second time in the history of this organization that something like this happens, following the failure of negotiations in Seattle (1999).
The main goal of the Cancun Ministerial Conference was to assess the progress in the negotiations and other efforts under the Doha Development Agenda, adopted at the Ministerial Conference held in the capital of Qatar in 2001. These negotiations, which include agriculture and non-agricultural market access (NAMA) negotiations, are due to conclude before 1 January 2005.
The meeting failed primarily as a result of the acute differences in interests dividing developed countries (mainly the United States and the countries of the European Union) from developing countries, who stood firmly against an agreement on the so called “Singapore issues” (investment, competition policy, transparency in government procurement, and trade facilitation).
In fact, the greatest achievement of the Conference may just be the consolidation of a group of 20 countries (called the G20+, as its number of members is expected to grow) which, with Brazil, Argentina, Egypt, India, China and South Africa, among others, joined forces to defend the interests of developing countries in multilateral trade negotiations. In the press conference held by this group at the end of the meeting, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said the group “comes out stronger than it was before Cancun.”
The official closing session adopted a brief and simple Ministerial Statement instead of the substantive Ministerial Text that had been under discussion since the first draft appeared in Geneva in July. The Statement expressed that all the participants had worked hard to make considerable progress under the Doha mandates, but that “more work needs to be done in some key areas to enable us to proceed towards the conclusion of the negotiations.”
Rather than reducing the polarization that dominated the Conference, the revised Ministerial Text –which in the end was not approved- had the opposite effect. Developing countries were unhappy because the text on agriculture did not address their concerns and outraged at the sections on the Singapore issues, which had totally disregarded their views and the formal proposals -presented by 70 developing countries- to continue the clarification process and not launch negotiations. They were also angered at the poor treatment given to the cotton initiative (that had gained widespread support), which one of the Ministers proclaimed to be an insult to Africans and unworthy of the WTO.
This brought to the fore the issue of the manipulative decision-making process, especially with respect to the drafting of texts, which are supposed to reflect the concerns and views of all member countries. Ultimately, Third World Network Director Martin Khor said, “it was the WTO’s untransparent and non-participatory decision-making process that caused the ‘unmanageable situation’ that led to the collapse of the Cancun Ministerial.”
This report presents an alternative way forward for the Doha Round. In order to do so, the report takes a step back from the current discussions and disputes, and asks what a Development Round of trade negotiations should look like if based on social justice and economic analysis, and not on economic power and special interests. 2004 (pdf version).
Agriculture negotiations have always served as the sticking point in the WTO as many developing countries have stated their refusal to consider other negotiations until they achieve some satisfaction in agriculture. June 2004.
How Monolithic is the G 20, while different factors influence the scope of this group of developing countries that emerged as a regional force during the World Trade Organizations 5th Ministerial meeting at Cancun? Will the G 20 expand to take on new issues? Walden Bello, Right to Livelihood Award winner and Transnational Institute board member and fellow, addressed these crucial questions at a Policy Dialogue organized by Transnational Institute and the Institute of Social Studies on the 5th April, 2004. This dialogue is part of the series of policy dialogues by which Transnational Institute aims to inspire critical thinking to the current neo-liberal development paradigm.
Geneva, 17 December. The WTO General Council finished its discussions on the follow-up to the Cancun Ministerial Conference this morning with the Council chairman admitting that there has been no breakthrough, with delegations not saying anything new, and positions among members still wide apart.
Developed countries must become re-engaged after the failed Cancun ministerial, says Luke Eric Peterson on behalf of the IISD Trade and Investment Team (pdf version).
On the final day of UNCTAD's Trade and Development Board session on 17 October, the President of the Board (the Ambassador of China to the UN), presented his Chairman's Summary on the discussion in the Board on the outcome of Cancun and on the WTO. Since there has not been a similar wide-ranging discussion at the WTO itself, the Chairman's summary can be taken as the perspectives of the various governments on the Cancun outcome.
As trade negotiators from developing countries on their return to Geneva begin to assess the outcome of the Fifth Ministerial Conference at Cancun, and the 'road-map' laid out in the six-paragraph ministerial statement on 14 September, there are some indications of attempts under way at the WTO and the 'principals' to get back to business as usual, and use the same discredited processes to get the Doha negotiations back on the same track - perhaps to another train wreck.
All concerned with international trade should work for salvaging the WTO from the debris of Cancun collapse. Even those considering the WTO framework as anti-development would certainly see the powerful signals emitted from Cancun indicating a new identity of the developing countries.
The WTO Fifth Ministerial in Cancun ended in failure without any agreement or Ministerial Declaration. This reflected a serious polarization of views and positions, mainly along North-South lines, on many issues: agriculture, NAMA, development and Singapore issues.
During the fifth ministerial of the World Trade Organization, the efforts of the United States and the European Union to maintain the current inequitable global trading system provoked the formation of the G 21, a block of countries led by Brazil, India, South Africa, and China. The US, in particular, lost no time in attacking the new formation.
Informal consultations on each of the so-called Singapore issues have been held in the past month with small groups of countries in the World Trade Organisation. There has been no change discernible in the position of the countries involved In the consultations, according to some trade officials who took part.
The attached Draft Ministerial Text is being circulated by the Chairman of the General Council on his own responsibility, in close cooperation with the Director-General (doc format).
The name of the text itself has been a mystery since the WTO had been suggesting that it would not be a declaration as past Ministerial texts, but rather a simple “communiqué” from Ministers. Doc format.
An August 24 WTO draft declaration for the Cancún ministerial strongly favors U.S.-EU perspective while continuing a pattern of diminishing the concerns of developing countries. Emphasizing frameworks over specifics, the proposal continues a tradition of failing to address the devastating impacts of ag dumping on world farmers. The declaration is largely—and remarkably—silent on access to essential medicines for poor countries (pdf version).
The revised Draft Cancun Ministerial Text was issued by the Chairman of the WTO General Council “on his own responsibility” on the night of 24 August 2003. It is meant to be the basis for the negotiations in Cancun. The Third World Network (TWN) is very concerned about the process surrounding the revised Draft Text as well as its substance (pdf version).
In this part of his report on WTO General Council meeting (24-25 July), Tetteh Hormeku deals with fundamental differences over the content of the Cancun draft ministerial declaration.
The Ministerial Conference is the organization’s highest-level decision-making body. It meets “at least once every two years”, as required by the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization — the WTO’s founding charter.
The WTO launched its current agenda, referred to as the “work programme,” at the Fourth Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar. Many analysts say the WTO’s agenda entails multilateral talks in several areas, making the current negotiations more extensive and far more intrusive than the Uruguay Round that created the WTO. Facts and figures (pdf format).
The Doha round of trade negotiations, launched in 2001, is in some difficulty. Whether the difficulties prove fatal depends on whether the developed world continues with the unnecessary rigidity it has shown so far on issues crucial to the developing world.
This update is in two parts. The first consists of observations on recent developments in the WTO negotiations leading up to Cancun. The second part sketches the global context against which to place the developments at the WTO.
As with most contentious issues, the negotiations on trade and environment are moving nowhere. Yet they are of special significance as they are likely to set in motion the direction for further integration of trade and environmental objectives in the WTO.
Forty-five developing-country members of the WTO issued a formal communication at the WTO's General Council meeting calling for "all further work" on three of the Singapore Issues (investment, competition and transparency in government procurement) to be "dropped".
Cancun’s most important decision will be whether or not to launch negotiations on the “new issues” or “Singapore issues”: investment, competition, transparency in government procurement, trade facilitation (doc version).
Representatives from several African countries have stated that the WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancun should decide that negotiations should not begin on the four “Singapore issues” but instead the process of clarification of each of the issues should continue in the respective working groups.
The Special Session of the WTO Committee on Agriculture, where the agriculture negotiations are taking place, at a formal session on 31 March acknowledged that the 31 March deadline for settling the modalities has been missed, but that "technical work" will continue.
The NGOs said that the Stuart Harbinson draft of a modalities for commitments ignored promises made at the last WTO Ministerial to place “development, food security and rural livelihoods at the heart” of the negotiations.
Agriculture, which is the foundation of food security and national security, was redefined as an issue of trade and commerce alone during the Uruguay Round of GATT with agribusiness MNCs as the determining force in the shift.
There are literally dozens of major issues being debated in the run up to the WTO Ministerial in Cancun. This article addresses one of these many concerns -- the content of the agriculture talks, which include key elements relating to food security and safety, water, and biodiversity.
The attached Declaration was agreed to on 25 October, 2002 in Geneva. As of 26 May, 2003, the Declaration has been endorsed by organizations representing 37 countries (pdf version).
Competition law and policy, in appropriate forms, are undoubtedly beneficial including for developing countries. Whilst not denying the need for regulation to prevent abuse of monopoly power and other anti-competitive practices, the key question is what form of regulation is appropriate for developing country needs (Doc version).
This website is a resource for NGOs, trade unions, civil society groups “and essentially anyone who recognises the danger (to society, to development, to the environment, to democracy) lurking within the WTO-Investment agreement”.
The proposed WTO agreement on investment will establish rules that developing countries do not need and cannot afford, enhancing investors’ "rights" while undermining governments’ capacity to pursue pro-development policies (pdf format).
Many developing countries have expressed their disenchantment with the ongoing negotiations at the WTO, as the promised benefits of trade liberalization have not materialized (pdf format).
The WTO is the wrong institution for discussions or negotiations on a multilateral investment agreement or framework. This was the main conclusion of the majority of participants at a seminar on the nature and implications of a WTO investment agreement, held on 20 March 2003 in Geneva.
The Chairman of the Working Group on Trade and Investment has come to the conclusion that there is no consensus among WTO members on how to proceed with the investment issue nor on what to advise the Ministers in Cancun on the issue.
The Doha-mandated deadline for WTO members to come up with a solution to public health crises exacerbated by unaffordable patented drugs has expired. With only three months to go before the 5th WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancun, Mexico, nothing is expected to materialize before the conference.
An Asia Pacific regional consultation was held in Colombo on 17-19 April, on the WTO/TRIPS Agreement and Access to Medicines, to assist countries to formulate appropriate public policy responses.
This is one of the Third World Network briefing papers for Cancun. It deals with one of the controversial issues of this conference, patents and public health, in the light of a recent WTO agreement (word format).
The already lagging WTO services negotiations are facing a new hurdle as developing countries are conditioning increased access of foreign services firms.
Pending issues: special and differential treatment
The loss of effectiveness of the provisions for Special and Differential Treatment for developing countries (S&DT) remains to be tackled in the Multilateral Trade Negotiations, in spite of the priority that the matter has received in numerous WTO declarations, and most recently in the various texts emanating from the Doha Ministerial Conference.
Action call on people throughout the United States to join the global uprising for peace and justice by organizing events in communities throughout the week leading up to the WTO Ministerial and on September 13.
The International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) was established in Geneva in September 1996 to contribute to a better understanding of development and environment concerns in the context of international trade.
Civil society groups from around the world call upon the 145 WTO member states and their trade ministers to follow transparent and inclusive procedures and reject the use of ‘unofficial’ and exclusive mini-ministerials in the run-up to the WTO’s Fifth Ministerial in Cancun and of Green Room meetings during Cancun.
The International Forum on Globalization played a key role in the WTO's 1999 Ministerial in Seattle, and focused its efforts throughout most of 1999 on the WTO and its relation to the larger issue of economic globalization.
In the interest of increasing capacity, sharing information and building expertise, an ad hoc group of NGOs has created a "human rights caucus" to be active in the months leading to Cancun and also during the Ministerial itself.
Participants in the Hemispheric and Global Assembly against the Free Trade of the Americas and the World Trade Organization, held in Mexico City on May 11-12, 2003, declare their intention and commitment to derail the Fifth Ministerial of the WTO.
Statement on Policy Coherence submitted to the ECOSOC High-Level meeting with the Bretton Woods Institutions and the WTO (April 14th), signed by 40 Networks and NGOs.
From a feminist perspective the WTO trade regime is one in which global corporate capital is enabled to move, accumulate and reproduce around the world (doc format).
"We have come to Cancun, not only to derail the WTO 5th Ministerial Conference, but also in order to gather in our diversity and plurality, to make known our demands and will, and to build, from below, the broadest alliance of the diverse voices in the planet. We have come to struggle."
In Doha, you were either with the free-traders or ‘terrorists’. The equation had changed by the time the World Trade Organisation got to Cancun. The author, Dr. Abid Qaiyum Suleri, is in charge of the Sustainable Agriculture and Livelihood Program of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute in Islamabad.
This collection offers some perspectives from researchers in the global south on key elements of the social and economic impacts of the WTO on developing countries. Drawn from contributions to the Knowledge Base, it features resources from a range of Southern research organizations, which relate to the issues under discussion at Cancun as well as regional research on the broad topic of trade and globalization.
The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy has published a pamphlet that introduces major issues on the agenda at the Cancún WTO ministerial. In addition to background on current WTO debates, this pamphlet offers a set of recommendation to address the stalemate that exists in global trade talks (pdf version).
George Bush seems to be preparing to destroy the WTO at the next world trade talks in September not because its rules are unjust, but because they are not unjust enough.
Unpacking international trade issues so that they make sense to the ordinary person on the street is of particular importance to social movements. Why? Because the struggle for justice, for fairness, for equity, for a chance for the world’s poor and disadvantaged must happen at the international level and at the level of the street and the village as well (pdf format).
Just one year after the industrialised countries triumphantly announced the launching of the "Doha development round" of trade negotiations, the WTO is collapsing under the weight of its own ambitions.
Irrespective of who is the greatest loser at Cancun, there is an important lesson to be learnt from the stalled ministerial talks: balance of power is a must for equitable and effective global trade agreements.
"America's 'war on terrorism' is at one with its expansionary goals for the market: open invasion in some places and open markets everywhere," said Anuradha Mittal, Food First co-director and author of the report. "While thousands of Iraqi civilians have been terrorized, humiliated, maimed, injured, and killed through British and American bombing, contracts to rebuild Iraq were guided like smart bombs into the laps of large U.S. corporations."
