[E-rundbrief] Info 25 - WTO-Cancun, 12.9.- Power Balance Shift in the WTO

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief - Info 25

Bad Ischl, 13.9.2003

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
www.begegnungszentrum.at

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September 12, 2003 - Food First Daily Report from Cancún #5

"For Who Are You Negotiating Now?" A Vigil for Lee Kyung-Hae

Power Balance Shift in the WTO

Corporate Interest leads to Barring of NGOs from Press Briefings

September 12, 2003
by Anuradha Mittal

"For Who Are You Negotiating Now?" A Vigil for Lee Kyung-Hae

In solidarity with the farmers who set up a shrine and an encampment at 
zero kilometers for Lee Kyung-Hae, the South Korean farmer who took his own 
life on Sept. 10 to demonstrate opposition to the WTO, a vigil was held 
inside the Convention Center at 4 pm on Sept. 11 to bring the concerns of 
campesinas inside the negotiations.

The WTO secretariat and the Mexican government issued a statement 
expressing regrets at the death of Mr. Lee Kyung-Hae due to "self-inflicted 
wounds," ignoring the real problem of depravation and farm foreclosures 
which is forcing farmers to take such drastic actions.

Around 4 pm, Paul Nicholson, a Basque farmer, representing Via Campesina 
and Changgeun Lee, International Director of the Korean Confederation of 
Trade Unions (KCTU), along with civil society representatives from around 
the world, set up a shrine for Mr. Lee outside the press center. During the 
day, over a 1,000 copies of Mr. Lee's statement on the impact of free trade 
policies, published in Korea AgraFood in April 2003, was distributed to the 
delegates and the press. The farmers delegation then marched across the 
convention center to an press conference room.

In a solemn ceremony with social justice and environmental activists 
holding candles and flowers, the farmers delegation which included George 
Naylor from the National Family Farm Coalition and Ricarrdo Navarro, 
President of the Friends of the Earth International, along with Changgeun 
Lee from KCTU, addressed the television cameras and print media, who 
scrambled to take down every word.

Messages of solidarity for Lee Kyueng-Hae and his family and colleagues in 
the Korean Federation of Farmers and Fishermen have poured in from around 
the world.

And as the sun set over the city of Cancún, bringing rain and thunder, the 
candlelight vigil at the encampment continued with hundreds of youth and 
others joining in. The Mexican police and security forces watched behind 
the steel barricades, which have been doubled and strengthened using cement 
blocks after they were toppled by the protestors at the start of the 
ministerial on Sept. 9. The youths carried torches, and beat drums, pots 
and pans to sound their challenge to an institution that is destroying 
their future and their communities. And a young woman walked up to the 
barricade and asked the police, "We protest to build a better world for you 
and your children. Then WHY do you not join us? Why do you work for the 
oppressors."

Power Balance Shift in the WTO

Cancún is witnessing a historic event with so many developing countries, 
which represent over half the world population, uniting to stand up to the 
bullying by rich nations around crucial issues such as agriculture and 
investment.

On Thursday, Sept. 11, Ministers representing seventy developing countries, 
including Bangladesh (on behalf of the LDC Group), Botswana, China, Cuba, 
Egypt, India, Indonesia, Jamaica (on behalf of the Carribean Community), 
Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Philippines, Tanzania, Venezuela, Zambia and 
Zimbabwe, sent the strongest message yet to the EU to abandon its call for 
negotiations on the four 'new' issues of investment, competition policy, 
government procurement and trade facilitation at the WTO's Fifth 
Ministerial Conference in Cancún. Their statement said that there is no 
explicit consensus on starting negotiations on modalities on the Singapore 
Issues. Speaking on behalf of the group, Malaysai's trade minister Rafidah 
Aziz said "We will not agree to launch negotiations at this meeting."

On agriculture, the Group of 21, a group of developing countries, is 
rejecting the text submitted by the General Council chairman as the basis 
of negotiations on agriculture. This text is based mainly on the U.S. and 
the EU proposal. The G21--which is growing in numbers--is insisting that 
its framework proposal, first submitted in Geneva in August and re-issued 
as a Ministerial document on Sept. 4, be at the center of the agriculture 
negotiations. Developing countries are demanding a major reduction in 
agricultural subsidies, which will lead to an elimination of these 
subsidies by rich nations as an essential part of an agricultural 
agreement. Joined by Brazil, India, and China, the group represents more 
than 60 percent of the world's farmers, whereas the EU and the U.S. account 
for less than 1 percent. However, subsidies to rich farmers in the U.S. and 
farmers in the EU amount to $1 billion a day which lead to dumping of cheap 
subsidized imports from the U.S. and the EU. The agriculture subsidies in 
the U.S. cost Third World nations $50 billion a year. Ironically it is the 
same amount that the rich nations give in aid to poor countries.

G21 have made it clear that they don't want any surprises sprung on them as 
the ministerial conference shifts into the intensive negotiation phase and 
that they would not accept a text prepared by the Singapore Minister, 
George Yeo, appointed as the facilitator for agriculture negotiations, as 
fait accompli.

Another group of developing countries, now numbering 32 nations, has formed 
an Alliance for Strategic Products (SP) and Special Safeguard Mechanism 
(SSM) to fight for the interests of "small vulnerable resource-poor farmers 
from developing countries" through strong SP and SSM mechanisms in the 
Cancún outcome on agriculture. The Alliance proposal is that:

1. Developing countries should have the flexibility to self designate a 
percent of tariff lines as special products (SPs) which shall not be 
subject to tariff reductions and no new commitments on tariff rate quota.

2. A special safeguard mechanism (SSM) shall be established for use by 
developing countries as a mechanism to protect their domestic markets 
against cheap and subsidized imports.

3. Products designated as SP shall also have access to the SSM.

In response, the European Union criticized the G21 developing countries of 
being too focused on trying to keep its members united rather than starting 
the continuation of the Doha Round negotiations on Agriculture. "The time 
for wasting time should be over by now," declared Gregor Kreuzhuber, 
spokesman for EU agriculture commissioner Franz Fischler. "Because if we 
continue in this way, we'll never make it by Sunday," he added, when the 
five-day ministerial is scheduled to end.

The US delegation's shocking response was to demand "compensation" from 
poor countries in the form of access to their markets for American farm 
products, for any eventual reduction in its agricultural subsidies. 
Brazilian foreign minister Celso Amorim called the American proposal for 
compensation "completely unacceptable" and that the developing countries 
have already "paid" a high price in previous trade negotiations in order to 
put agriculture in the WTO agenda.

In the meanwhile, a secret document leaked on Sept. 11 containing the 
changes that the European Union wants to introduce in the draft ministerial 
text, clearly shows that while the EU insists on calling Cancún 
negotiations a "development round," in reality it wants more concessions in 
the area of services and further access to the markets of the least 
developed countries. It is seeking to remove all mention of eliminating 
export subsidies from the final declaration of the ministerial, enraging 
the developing countries and hopefully further uniting them in numbers and 
strength.

Corporate Interest leads to Barring of NGOs from Press Briefings

So far NGOs had been allowed into the press briefings at the Cancún 
Ministerial though they were not allowed to ask questions. Yesterday's USTR 
press briefing was interrupted by Greenpeace activists who delivered maize 
to Mr. Allgeier and Mr. Penin,from the USTR offices. A representative from 
Greenpeace Latin America then addressed the press briefly on the impact of 
genetic contamination of maize by GM crops in Mexico. Soon after other 
activists stood up with signs that said, "WTO Kills Farmers."

This action was met with hostility and screaming at the protestors by a man 
wearing press credentials. The WTO secretariat then issued a statement, 
banning NGO entry into the press briefings. It was later discovered that 
the man wearing press credentials, William Dabaghi, works for Maximus 
International. Their website claims, ""Specializing in Agribusiness and 
Focusing on the WTO." Prior to this, he worked as a lawyer for Arter and 
Hadden for 17 years, and had also worked as the director of Congressional 
Affairs in the Dept. of Transport. Tom Hayden, a fellow at the Nation 
Institute, present at the conclusion of the briefing, reported that at the 
end of the briefing, William Dabaghi shook hands with the panelists from 
the USTR and said, "I will handle the hecklers for you or you would have to 
do it."

© Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy
398 60th Street, Oakland, CA 94618   USA
Tel: 510-654-4400   Fax: 510-654-4551
Email: foodfirst at foodfirst.org

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Matthias Reichl
Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
Wolfgangerstr.26
A-4820 Bad Ischl
Tel. +43-6132-24590
e-mail: mareichl at ping.at
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