TWN
Info Service on WTO and Trade Issues (Oct15/24)
29 October 2015
Third World Network
MC10 must deliver strong development outcome, say CSOs
Published in SUNS #8123 dated 29 October 2015
Geneva, 28 Oct (Kanaga Raja) -- Nearly 200 civil society organisations
(CSOs) across Africa and India have called for a strong development
outcome with significant gains for developing and least-developed
countries at the upcoming Nairobi Ministerial Conference of the World
Trade Organisation (WTO).
This call came in a joint statement addressed to the heads of government
of the 54 countries on the African continent as well as India on the
occasion of the Third India-Africa Forum Summit taking place in New
Delhi from 26-29 October.
In their statement, the CSOs said that the "success" of
the Ministerial should not be valued in terms of reaching the low
hanging fruits, which favours developed countries but one that actually
equips developing countries to address key economic, social and environmental
needs.
They also underlined that the Doha Development Round (DDR) should
not be concluded in Nairobi or later without a meaningful development
package and no other round should be launched without addressing the
core development issues that the DDR was mandated to address.
"In particular, the Singapore Issues including government procurement,
competition policy, investment and any ‘new issues' would severely
restrict space for implementing development-oriented policies and
hence should not be touched."
The joint statement was signed by 119 organisations and individuals
in India and 71 organisations from across Africa.
Among the signatories were the ACP Civil Society Forum; Society for
International Development; The Southern and Eastern African Trade,
Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI); Rwanda Civil Society
Platform; Malawi Economic Justice Network (MEJN); All India Drug Action
Network; Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU); Diverse Women for Diversity;
Focus on the Global South-India; Forum Against FTAs; Public Services
International, Asia and the Pacific; Right to Food Campaign; The National
Fish-workers Forum (NFF): and Third World Network-India.
In an accompanying press release, Dr. Yash Tandon, Chairman of SEATINI
(Uganda, Zimbabwe and Kenya), one of the signatories, said that "there
is real fear that the developed countries will try to end the Doha
Round in Nairobi without a credible development outcome and launch
a new round that casts aside developing country concerns. This must
not be allowed to happen".
Biraj Patnaik, from the Right to Food Campaign-India, another signatory
to the statement, said that "agriculture across developing countries
including in Africa and India face a stiff challenge in the current
negotiations from the USA and the EU who refuse to grant a permanent
solution to the food security proposal and a development- oriented
outcome in agriculture, including on cotton subsidies and market access".
Dr. Biswajit Dhar, Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi,
who also signed the statement, said that "India and the African
countries must coordinate and support each other to ensure that all
developmental issues including concerns of the LDCs and the Cotton-4
(Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali) are adequately addressed in Nairobi."
In their joint statement, the African and Indian CSOs said one of
the main objectives of the WTO was to create more opportunities for
the developing world, and even more so for least developed countries
(LDCs), so they could advance their development progress. As a result,
the world was to see a more balanced economic and, hopefully, socially
just order.
However, they said, after twenty years of the WTO, "we do not
see any materialisation of those promises from global trade rules.
In spite of some strengthening of developing country voices, the developed
countries and the transnational corporations within them have grown
more powerful, strident and aggressive."
They have made it clear that they are interested in the WTO only to
"take" from and not to "give" to developing countries.
The CSOs charged that the current Director-General, Roberto Azevedo
(himself from a developing country), and the WTO Secretariat and its
functionaries, are taking pro-developed country positions in the desperation
to retain the WTO's relevance as a multilateral forum.
In fact, even the WTO's Doha Development Round, launched in 2001 and
mandated to address core development issues faced by the South, continues
to see stiff opposition by the developed countries to any concessions
for developing countries and to removal of barriers, which could actually
enable them to provide better economic and social opportunities to
their people.
Special and differential (S&D) treatment in agriculture and NAMA,
for example, through easier terms for tariff cuts, Special Products
and Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) in agriculture, preferential
Rules of Origin for LDCs, and most importantly talks on agricultural
subsidies, including the crucial issue of cotton subsidies, given
by the West, have failed to get anywhere.
In this context, the CSOs strongly supported the statement made by
the Kenyan Foreign Minister, Ms Amina Mohamed, on July 1 that the
Doha Development Agenda (DDA) negotiations cannot be concluded without
"credible" developmental outcomes.
"It is not only that the WTO is not helping realize development
pathways in the South; it is actively threatening development policy
space and development-oriented programmes in the developing world,"
said the CSOs.
The CSOs noted that the stiff resistance by the USA, EU, and other
developed countries to negotiate a permanent solution to the food
security proposal and a development-oriented outcome in agriculture,
which is not only of key interest to India and several African countries,
but also to many other developing countries, is a clear evidence of
this challenge.
Agriculture and food, and the ability to continue to produce food,
is a core development need in both India and Africa, they said, adding
that they would like to also support the position of the Cotton-4
countries on the elimination of all subsidies on cotton and Duty-Free-Quota-Free
(DFQF) market access to LDCs on cotton and its products, which is
of key interest to African countries as well as India.
In NAMA (non-agricultural market access), the developed countries
continue to insist not only on adverse formulas on tariff cuts that
will force developing countries to cut more tariffs, but also on "Sectorals
or zero-for- zero" where some sectors will see total elimination
of tariffs with immediate effect.
"The NAMA proposals will severely limit domestic industrialization
and job creation prospects in Africa and India."
The joint statement noted that the TRIPS Agreement under the WTO set
up intellectual property rights (IPRs) standards which are being pushed
through trade rules; it creates barriers to technology development
and transfer in developing countries with impacts on access to medicines
and health care, key agricultural inputs including seeds varieties
and traditional knowledge.
However, the TRIPS Agreement had offered some flexibilities to developing
countries that could help them protect important development priorities.
"These flexibilities are now being increasingly challenged."
Moreover, said the CSOs, the TRIPS waiver for LDCs is continuously
under negotiation and is used as a lever to extract other concessions.
Now, developed countries are opposing amendments to TRIPS rules to
prevent ‘biopiracy' from Africa, India and several other developing
countries.
They also pointed out that the current WTO situation presents grave
contradictions. Instead of creating spaces to foster growth and development,
"we see more and more aggressive demands are made on developing
countries to prise open their economies on very unfair terms, which
would threaten livelihoods, food security, locally beneficial industrialization
and beneficiation (local value addition)."
The current negotiations at the WTO clearly indicate these contradictions,
created by the aggressive positioning of the developed countries:
pushing a binding Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) while not granting
a permanent solution to food security and offering only a "best
endeavour" LDC package; offering no cuts in domestic subsidies
but instead asking developing countries to cut subsidies and grant
further market access; and blocking TRIPS flexibilities while pushing
for higher IPR protection through TRIPS.
Further, said the CSOs, the developed countries are creating parallel
and aggressive mechanisms through secret negotiations of plurilateral
agreements such as the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA), Information
Technology Agreement-2 (ITA-2), Agreement in Environmental Goods and
Services, and bilateral trade and investment agreements, all of which
thwart the multilateral nature of the WTO.
The joint statement went on to highlight the following specific recommendations
that civil society in India and across African countries want to put
forward to their leaders:
* Ensure a strong development outcome at Nairobi with significant
gains for developing and least developed countries. The "success"
of the Ministerial should not be valued in terms of reaching the low
hanging fruits, which favours developed countries but one that actually
equips developing countries to address key economic, social and environmental
needs;
* The Doha Development Round should not be concluded in Nairobi or
later without a meaningful development package and no other round
should be launched without addressing the core development issues
that the DDR was mandated to address. In particular, the Singapore
Issues including government procurement, competition policy, investment
and any "new issues" would severely restrict space for implementing
development-oriented policies and hence should not be touched;
* Specific deliverables of a development package should include but
not be limited to: a permanent solution on the food security proposal
that allows essential subsidies to producers for supporting public
food stockholding; discussions on domestic subsidies including on
cotton subsidies, by the advanced countries like the USA and the EU;
an agreement on elimination of export competition; special and differential
treatment (S&DT) for developing countries in all aspects of agricultural
and NAMA negotiations including on tariff cuts and safeguard mechanisms;
‘Biodiversity Amendment' to the TRIPS Agreement to prevent ‘biopiracy';
and a strong LDC package. On the other hand, further advances in and
weakening of the flexibilities of the TRIPS Agreement, the Trade Facilitation
Agreement (TFA) and further talks on plurilaterals and mega-regional
FTAs should be blocked; and
* Conduct the negotiations in a transparent, inclusive and fair manner
that truly reflects the multilateral nature of the WTO and not participate
in small ‘green room' discussions and dealings that leave a large
number of Member States out of discussions that would critically impact
their people and the planet.
The joint statement further said that India and Africa have played
a key role in the WTO negotiations, most often supporting strong developing
country positions.
"They have a crucial role to play in this Ministerial. It is
of tremendous importance that the WTO Ministerial Conference is being
held in Africa. As a strong and articulate advocate of developing
country space in the WTO, the African countries, and Kenya in particular,
have a responsibility to ensure a balanced and development- friendly
outcome at the Ministerial."
The "success" of the Ministerial will only be a success
if it delivers on key development objectives of the South that includes
the interests of the people in Africa and India and benefits all people
in the developing world.
"If it can't, it is of no interest to us," said the CSOs.
"Working together, India and Africa must ensure our people have
access to diversified opportunities for livelihoods, jobs and incomes,
healthy food to eat and the ability to produce it locally, have access
to adequate services, such as drinking water, health and sanitation,
natural resources, and live in a safe and sustainable environment.
No trade rules should come in the way of attaining these objectives.
The WTO in particular must be allowed only to forward and not to hinder
these objectives."
The CSOs further said: "Our leaders must also remember the commitments
they made in the recently adopted 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,
which is to ‘leave no one behind'. They know it will be impossible
to follow the principles of this Agenda and meet the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) without fair trade rules and other means of implementation."
That is why they fought so hard on these issues in these negotiations.
But unless they hold strong against pressures and keep reiterating
their development priorities and fight for the policy space to realise
those, their commitments to the global community and to their own
people will be meaningless.
"The WTO and the Nairobi Ministerial is the place where this
commitment must be made real," the joint statement stressed.
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