africa: African People's Declaration on the WTO

African People's Declaration
On Africa and the World Trade Organisation

Statement issued at the end of joint Africa Trade
Network (ATN) Southern African Peoples Solidarity
Network (SAPSN) Pre-Cancun Strategy Conference, in
Johannesburg 14-17 August 2003, Resisting the WTO

1. From 14-17 August 2003, we activists from
across Africa, representing African civil society
organisations, labour unions and other social
movements, gathered in Johannesburg, South Africa to
evaluate the current state of negotiations in the
World Trade Organisation (WTO), and to strategise and
make known our positions on the 5th WTO Ministerial
Conference due to be held in Cancun, Mexico from 10-14
September 2003.

2. Our stand on WTO's role: We re-affirm our
recognition of the WTO as a key instrument of
transnational capital in its push for corporate
globalisation. We noted the many destructive effects
of WTO agreements on the lives of working people and
the poor, especially women, in Africa and throughout
the world. We renewed our determination to continue
resisting corporate globalisation, and the WTO itself
until it is replaced by a fully democratic
institution.

3. The context of Cancun Meeting: We noted that
the forthcoming WTO Ministerial meeting is taking
place against a background of a crisis of credibility
of neo-liberal policies and global capitalism, that
have been deepened by the Enron and other corporate
scandals exposing the duplicity and venality of the
bosses of transnational capital. At the same time, the
world is faced with the aggressive militarism of the
United States under a political leadership whose
illegal attack on Iraq under false pretences has shown
that law and morality are no bar to what it will do to
advance the interests of American capital. Across
Africa and in other developing countries neo-liberal
economic policies are putting basic services, such as
health and education, beyond the reach of ordinary
people and deepening unemployment, poverty and social
inequality. We, however, take heart from the growing
strength in the organised expression of all those
around the world opposed to militarism and corporate
globalisation.

4. Conclusions on the current state of affairs
in WTO: After our deliberations on the WTO Doha agenda
and related issues, we concluded as follows:
a. The WTO has ignored the continued and growing
opposition by popular movements throughout the world
to its policies and methods, such as the illegitimate
ways by which the Doha Agenda was imposed on
developing countries in the 4th Ministerial of the
WTO.
b. The failure of the WTO to meet agreed
deadlines in various negotiations - notably
Agriculture, TRIPS and Public Health, Special and
Differential Treatment and the many Implementation
Issues is primarily due to the refusal of the Quad
(USA, EU, Japan and Canada) to accept the legitimate
demands of developing countries.
c. These failures are merely an aspect of the
double standards the Quad countries apply in
international trade issues; marked by one set of rules
for themselves and another that they impose on
developing countries, exposing the WTO as a thoroughly
undemocratic institution.
d. We particularly condemn both the EU and the US
for their role in resisting the fulfilment of the
deadlines and undertakings on Agriculture, and their
refusal to honour the compromise consensus on TRIPS
and Public Health.
e. On the Singapore or New Issues (i.e.
Investment, Competition, Government Procurement and
Trade Facilitation) we reiterate our total opposition
to their inclusion in the WTO, or the initiation of
discussions on modalities with a view to the launch of
negotiations on these in Cancun. We stand by our
demand that these issues should be removed from the
WTO's agenda altogether.
f. It is clear that, as Cancun approaches, the
Quad are accelerating the deployment of old and new
undemocratic practices and pressures both in and
outside the WTO so as to force their will on
developing countries. In order to limit such
illegitimate and underhand practices by the powerful,
we endorse the campaign for internal transparency and
participation in the WTO recently launched by many
NGOs.
g. We note the opposition to the launch of
negotiations on these issues expressed by African
countries, especially the declaration by African Trade
Ministers at the end of their meeting in Mauritius in
June 2003. We also note a new initiative taken at the
WTO on 13 August by a group of African countries to
demand that the official WTO text that goes to Cancun
includes proposals for improving the decision-making
process in the WTO; as well as repeating their
opposition to the new issues. We call on these
countries to stand by these positions, as a matter of
democratic principle, and also urge other African and
developing countries to join them.

5. Call to Action: In the light of the above we
have agreed and call on other African civil society
organisations, labour unions and other social
movements who share our views to join us to:
a. Mobilise the broadest possible sectors of
African civil society to express their opposition to
the continuing destructive role of the WTO in the
lives of working people and the poor, and upon our
countries' development aspirations and prospects;
b. Mobilise and sustain strong political pressure
on our governmental representatives, in ways best
suited to the specific conditions in our countries,
before and during the Cancun ministerial meeting;
actively holding our governments accountable for the
positions they take in the Cancun Ministerial meeting,
and expose any attempt to betray the best interests of
the African peoples;
c. Pressure institutions of government, and our
legislatures, and relevant public officials in our
various countries so as to ensure the defence of our
peoples' interests in the forthcoming Cancun
ministerial meeting. Especially important are i)
blocking the launch of negotiations on the Singapore
issues and ii) rejecting any attempt by the Quad to
manipulate developing countries into accepting
negotiations on the Singapore Issues by linking these
to issues of concern to developing countries;
d. Pressure our respective governments to endorse
the two proposals tabled at the WTO by 11 African
countries on 13 August 2003;
e. Be alert to, and therefore resist, the
inevitable attempts by representatives of Quad
countries and other governments who, between now and
Cancun, will be visiting our national capitals under
various guises, and contacting groups within our own
countries to bully African governments to take
positions detrimental to the African people on the
issues on the Cancun agenda;
f. Launch an information dissemination campaign
in our various countries to publicise what is
happening in and around the WTO in the run up to and
during the Cancun Ministerial meeting;
g. Mobilise a strong team of African activists to
give voice to African perspectives in the activities
of civil society organisations who will gather from
around the world in Cancun;
h. Affirm our links with our partners in
organisations of civil society outside Africa,
including in the global North, to pressure their
governments (especially of the Quad) in the interest
of working people and the poor throughout the world,
and in the interest of our planet;
i. Work together across Africa on the WTO, before
and during Cancun, under the umbrella of the Africa
Trade Network (ATN) to ensure common focus and
strength in unity.

We issue this statement, and our call, as part of our
commitment to the global movement against
neo-liberalism and corporate globalisation, and the
struggle for the establishment of alternative systems
and institutions for all of humanity and the world.
Another Africa is possible!
Another world is possible!

Issued in Johannesburg, 17 August 2003