TRADE: Globalisation under Scrutiny at WTO Meet

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

DOHA, Nov 10 2001 (IPS) - The World Trade Organisation (WTO) inaugurated its Fourth Ministerial Conference Friday under heavy pressure from developing countries and international civil society, which are clamouring for a more equitable course in the globalisation process.

After two WTO conferences that were disrupted by massive street protests staged by a broad range of non-governmental groups (Geneva in 1998 and the US city of Seattle in 1999), the ministers representing the organisation’s 142 member countries are finding the Qatar capital to be an isolated venue that is more propitious for their trade discussions.

The trade sessions under way in Doha, a city of 600,000 people on the Persian Gulf coast that has erected a strict security system to protect the 2,641 official delegates, many of whom are jittery given the conference’s tumultuous precedents, the recent terrorist attacks in the United States and the US-led military strikes against Afghanistan.

The armed forces and police have blocked off access to the peninsula where the convention centre is located. The site consists of an area of several square kilometres in which only official buses may travel, carrying delegates, officials and journalists.

Only the ministers of the WTO member states move along the deserted streets, travelling in closely guarded vehicles while war ships patrol the surrounding sea

This militarised atmosphere has not prevented actions by representatives of the limited number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) who were granted visas to make the trip to Doha for the conference.

At the opening ceremony, which included the participation of the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, was disrupted by a minor incident. Civil society groups said the initial negotiations have already been marked by a tense climate.

Mark Curtis, policy chief for the UK-based organisation Christian Aid, stated that “NGOs are utterly outraged by the stories of threats and intimidation against poor countries” occurring at the ministerial conference.

Other NGOs, including ActionAid, Catholic Fund for Overseas Development (CAFOD), Save the Children, and the World Development Movement, joined Christian Aid in urging industrialised countries to sign a code of conduct pledging that they will not use economic or diplomatic threats or bribes during talks in Doha.

Severina Rivera, an activist for the American arm of Oxfam, an international humanitarian group, said this week that US officials had threatened several African countries that Washington would withhold aid and loans if they did not back off their demands for greater flexibility in pharmaceutical patents.

India and Brazil, which are proposing a special declaration on the relationship between intellectual property rights and public health, are working hard to counteract the pressure being exerted by the United States by launching their own information campaign on the matter, according to a developing country delegate who requested anonymity.

The trade ministers are to discuss a draft documents focusing on three areas: a general assessment of the future of global trade, the question of patent rights and access to pharmaceuticals, and the implementation of trade accords pending from the last round of multilateral talks.

The chairman of the WTO General Council, Stuart Harbinson, one of the key speakers at Friday’s opening ceremonies, presented the three documents to the trade ministers, stating that he did so in his own name.

The three texts did not win the necessary consensus in the conference’s preparatory talks at the WTO headquarters in Geneva because many poor countries assert that their content favours industrialised countries to the detriment of the interests of the developing world.

Martin Khor, of the Malaysia-based Third World Network, criticised Harbinson for having distributed a “one-sided and discriminatory” document to the ministers.

The texts, intended to lay the groundwork for a new round of multilateral talks on trade liberalisation, are the result of a process that was biased and lacked transparency, said Khor.

At the WTO meet, which ends Nov 13, the industrialised nations are seeking a new round of negotiations with the objective of taking even greater advantage of trade liberalisation, while most developing countries are demanding a review of the process, which they say leaves them marginalized.

The proposal to launch a new round received support from all of the speakers at the conference’s opening ceremonies: WTO director- general Mike Moore, Qatar’s Finance Minister Youssef Hussain Kamal, Sheikh Hamad and Harbinson.

In a message read before the meeting of delegates to the WTO conference, United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan said the new negotiations should be a “development round” that confront the main problems afflicting the countries of the South.

As the inaugural ceremony began, a group of activists from several NGOs, led by renowned French anti-globalisation militant José Bové, gathered outside the gates to the meeting site to protest the WTO’s lack of transparency and democracy.