Africa: On the road to Hong Kong
Leading up to the December 2005 World Trade Organization's (WTO) Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong, Pambazuka News will examine some of the issues regarding the WTO as it affects Africa. In the first of this series, we examine the background to the current round of WTO summits, with a specific focus on Cancun.
Mobilization around the WTO meeting has been strong, and will continue up until December. The mobilization supports examination of and action against the potentially dangerous policies set to be discussed at the WTO meeting.
Some background on previous WTO summits may prove useful. One of the key conferences in the WTO's history, in the view of civil society organizations, was the 2003 Ministerial Conference that took place in Cancun. In 2001, WTO members assembled in Doha, Qatar, where they agreed on the Doha Development Agenda, which laid out a plan to open world markets to agricultural and manufactured goods. 2003's Cancun assembly was meant to solidify the Doha rounds, which, WTO members claimed, would provide fairer agreements to developing countries. The four main areas of their talks included agriculture, industrial goods, trade in services and a new customs code. Cancun talks collapsed, as rich countries (mainly the US and EU) could not reach agreement with poor countries (India, Brazil, China and South Africa played predominantly in this move, but were supported by the G20, an emerging coalition of countries not represented in the G8). This alliance refused to sign a proposed document, which, they felt, favored the richer WTO member nations.
On the road to Hong Kong
Leading up to the December 2005 World Trade Organization's (WTO) Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong, Pambazuka News will examine some of the issues regarding the WTO as it affects Africa. In the first of this series, we examine the background to the current round of WTO summits, with a specific focus on Cancun.
Mobilization around the WTO meeting has been strong, and will continue up until December. The mobilization supports examination of and action against the potentially dangerous policies set to be discussed at the WTO meeting.
Some background on previous WTO summits may prove useful. One of the key conferences in the WTO's history, in the view of civil society organizations, was the 2003 Ministerial Conference that took place in Cancun. In 2001, WTO members assembled in Doha, Qatar, where they agreed on the Doha Development Agenda, which laid out a plan to open world markets to agricultural and manufactured goods. 2003's Cancun assembly was meant to solidify the Doha rounds, which, WTO members claimed, would provide fairer agreements to developing countries. The four main areas of their talks included agriculture, industrial goods, trade in services and a new customs code. Cancun talks collapsed, as rich countries (mainly the US and EU) could not reach agreement with poor countries (India, Brazil, China and South Africa played predominantly in this move, but were supported by the G20, an emerging coalition of countries not represented in the G8). This alliance refused to sign a proposed document, which, they felt, favored the richer WTO member nations.
Agriculture was one of the key issues in Cancun, as poor countries accused the richer countries of protecting their farmers with subsidies, not available to developing nations, and then discarding their goods on poor countries at extremely low prices, serving to undermine local farmers. Subsidies, funded by taxpayers via governments, pushed down production costs and raised productivity for Western farmers, causing them to become more competitive. Not only do poorer countries have to compete locally with these cheap imports, when trying to export they come up against subsidized agricultural goods, making their products more expensive, and therefore difficult to sell.
The role of African government's at these talks occurred through the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP). Many of these states came to the table with goals to not begin new talks (called the Singapore Issues), but rather to resolve existing discussions (the Doha Rounds), as they were the ones that impact these poorer nations the most.
After the collapse of the trade talks in Cancun, non-governmental and civil society organizations in the developing world applauded the fact that the poorer countries had the confidence to stand up to more powerful nations and the agreements that would inevitably prove detrimental. However, many still saw the WTO as inherently undemocratic, not transparent, unaccountable and meant only to operate for the benefit of rich, Western countries; that poorer countries were still involved in the WTO was, and still is, a contentious point for many activists.
In 2004, WTO talks in Geneva were held in an attempt to resolve those issues that were left at Cancun. Many activists saw these as ministerial declarations without a ministerial meeting – policies that were detrimental were passed in an attempt to be able to move on, and many (at least 100) of the WTO ministers were absent. The meetings saw severe strategizing, especially on the part of the US. India and Brazil were pulled into their discussions, in an attempt by the wealthier countries to pacify the G20. By neutralizing these two nations, the US could be seen as working in collaboration with poorer nations. What resulted, however, was simply the fact that Brazil and India were able to meet their own interests, and did little to lobby for those countries left behind.
In Geneva, rich governments agree to cut subsidies to their farmers for export and lower tariff barriers. However, those countries also won access to trade facilitation, or better access to markets in developing nations, particularly for industrial goods. Reactions to the agreements surrounding subsidies were mixed. It was agreed that export subsidies were to be completely eliminated, however, no end date was set, and the US and EU were not mandated to take action until the other did so. Allegedly, the talks agreed to reduce overall levels of subsidies by 20%. This is more complicated, however, in reality, as the exact terms mean that in the end, wealthy countries could potentially manage to increase their domestic subsidies. Developing countries negotiated the right to protect products that were crucial to their economies, although the wording of this agreement was, for many, far too vague. These countries were pleased with the fact that three of the four Singapore Issues were dropped, with motions including those surrounding competition policy, government procurement and investment.
This is only a brief overview of the complicated negotiations and agreements that have been reached by WTO member states over the past several years. It will be interesting to see how these movements play out at the next meeting, and Pambazuka News will be looking more closely at what is at stake for African nations in next week's edition.
Resources:
http://www.africaaction.org/docs99/wto9909.htm
* Researched and written by Karoline Kemp, Commonwealth of Learning Young Professionals Intern, Fahamu
* Please send comments to [email protected]