TRADE: Consumer Activists Object to WTO Accords

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Oct 17 2001 (IPS) - Civil society groups are demanding that any new round of multilateral negotiations launched by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) must benefit consumer interests and sustainable development.

Consumers International, a London-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), says the new round of talks the WTO is promoting in the lead-up to the November ministerial conference should concentrate on “correcting some of the many imbalances and inadequacies in the implementation of past agreements.”

The aim of Consumers, summarised here Tuesday by the organisation’s director-general, Julian Edwards, coincides with the principal objective of developing countries to conduct an assessment of the results of the previous international trade talks, known as the Uruguay Round, before embarking on a new round.

The treaty-implementation question involves the problems developing countries face in meeting their obligations and the difficulties they are experiencing “due to the failure of developed countries to fully live up to the spirit of their obligations,” said Edwards.

Above all, Consumers International seeks to ensure that consumers benefit from new WTO negotiations and that consumer rights are protected and fortified within a strong multilateral trading system, he added.

The WTO, entrusted with regulating international trade liberalisation, plans to hold its fourth ministerial conference Nov 9-13 and proposed to begin the new round of talks at that time.

Last December, it was announced that Doha, capital of Qatar, would host the conference. But in recent days, some top trade officials have commented that the meeting may be held in another city, one that is not so close to the tensions arising from the US- led military actions against Afghanistan. The most likely candidate for a replacement site is Singapore.

Edwards said that to avoid a repeat of the resounding failure of the previous ministerial conference, held in the US city of Seattle in 1999, the upcoming conference must take the concerns of developing countries and civil society seriously.

According to Consumers International, the areas requiring urgent action include existing agreements such as the Agreement on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), and problems related to subsidies, quotas and tariffs.

Consumers in developing and developed countries alike “are suffering as a result of the developed countries’ reluctance to open their markets, especially in agriculture and textiles,” said Edwards.

In what he refers to as a “Consumer Round” of multilateral trade talks, the industrialised countries would commit to reducing their farm subsidies because they harm poor countries, where 70 percent of the population works in the agricultural sector.

Over the last 50 years, the average tariff on manufactured goods has dropped from 40 to just four percent, while tariffs on agricultural commodities have remained at about 40 percent.

Farm subsidies profoundly influence international trade, as the industrialised countries of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) spend a combined total of at least 360 billion dollars annually to prop up their agricultural sectors.

A future round of WTO-led talks should push for the elimination of credits and subsidies aimed at farm exports as well, according to Consumers.

The set of measures Edwards is promoting seek to uphold the right of developing countries to protect the food security of their populations.

Industrialised countries should accept the tariff-free entry of industrial and farm products originating from the developing countries in general by 2015, and from the poorest nations beginning in 2010, proposes Consumers.

The NGO also suggests putting an end to the inappropriate use of anti-dumping (disloyal competition) measures that some countries – the United States in particular – target against imports coming from developing countries.

As far as the liberalisation of trade in services, it is a move that could benefit consumers, “but the current (WTO agreement) text affects government ability to put in place the appropriate regulations that ensure consumers access to basic services such as water and telecommunications.”

The WTO Agreement on Agriculture has resulted in reduced purchasing power for many poor consumers and has limited their access to food, the director-general said.

Consumers International believes that the current draft of the ministerial declaration, to be signed at the conference wherever it ultimately takes place, “does not take adequate account of consumer concerns.”

By ignoring the needs of the poorest consumers, the WTO is failing in its mandate to promote sustainable development, said Edwards.