Economy & Trade, Headlines, Human Rights, Latin America & the Caribbean

LATIN AMERICA: Consumer Groups Applaud Emergence of G22 Bloc

Gustavo González

SANTIAGO, Sep 22 2003 (IPS) - Consumer organisations in Latin America welcomed the creation of the Group of 22 (G22) developing nations, which vigorously defended the interests of poor countries at the WTO ministerial conference this month in Mexico.

The emergence of the G22 opens ”a new era in global trade negotiations,” stated a communique issued by Consumers International, the global federation of more than 250 consumer organisations in 115 countries.

The G22 ”paves the way for the creation of other blocs of developing countries, to strengthen their bargaining power vis-a-vis the industrialised North,” Leo Stutman, an economist and technical consultant to the Brazilian Institute of Consumer Defence (IDEC), told IPS.

Latin America’s incipient consumers’ movement has been worriedly observing the effects of the unfettered freeing up of trade, as indicated by a survey carried out in 16 countries in the region, the results of which were released by the Latin American regional office of Consumers International, in Santiago.

Consumer organisations tend to align themselves with the positions taken by the G22 group of developing countries that is demanding that the United States, the European Union and Japan make good on their promises to eliminate farm subsidies before the talks move on to other points of the multilateral agenda agreed at the fourth ministerial meeting in Doha, Qatar in 2001.

In the fifth World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial gathering, held Sep. 10-14 in the Mexican resort of Cancun, the industrialised North insisted on subordinating the question of agriculture to advances on the so-called ”Singapore issues” -investment, competition, transparency in government procurement and trade facilitation.

The London-based Consumers International loudly applauded the fact that ”For the first time in the WTO, a large group of developing countries united behind a demand for trade policies that advance their development needs.

”Their firmness creates the potential for advancing the interests of consumers in developed and developing countries and will help shape future negotiations.”

Marcela Ortiz, communications officer in the regional Latin American office of Consumers International, noted that prior to the meeting in Cancun, her organisation had already warned of the standoff between the developing and industrialised nations.

Until the impact on consumers of the WTO agreements (on agriculture, services and intellectual property) are evaluated, new issues should not be discussed, as the industrialised countries are insisting, Consumers International said on the eve of the ministerial conference.

What occurred in Cancun was, ”on the balance, positive, because consumer rights were not undermined, and we did not have to yield on other points either,” said Stutman, who was among the activists from around the world who flew to Cancun during the ministerial meeting.

Brazil’s IDEC had feared a compromise in Cancun, in which the countries of the North would yield to developing nations’ demands regarding agriculture in exchange for concessions on the ”new issues” contained in the Singapore agenda and for greater openness of the developing world to investment in public services.

That would have reduced the power of governments to regulate essential services like water, electricity, telecommunications, education and health, which in Brazil are protected by the Consumer Defence Code, one of the most advanced in the world, said Stutman.

”On the other hand, we lament the failure of the talks on agriculture, because the elimination of subsidies and barriers in rich countries is in the interests of consumers. The failure to obtain an agreement limits our chances of economic growth and the generation of jobs,” he said.

The president of the Mexican Association for Consumer Defence, Arturo Lomelín, commented to IPS that ”the failure in Cancun will have an impact on consumers because important agricultural trade issues were left pending.”

Lomelín said there was an urgent need to regulate trade in transgenic corn. He noted that imports of GM corn from the United States skyrocketed from just over 152,000 tons in 1993 to six million tons in 2002.

The situation, he underlined, is jeopardising Mexico’s native species of corn, and the country’s ”food sovereignty” – the right of countries to make decisions about all aspects of food production.

”The sad thing, above and beyond Cancun, is that in Mexico, consumers have little awareness when it comes to buying food, which means there is no effective social demand that would increase the pressure for a resolution of the problems of international trade,” said Lomelín.

The WTO conference also failed to hold in-depth discussions on the question of piracy and the sale of falsified brand-name products or illegally produced goods, he added.

”Some progress has been made in discussions on intellectual property, but the issue of piracy has not been given the importance it deserves. It should be the object of a vigorous global crackdown,” he said.

In Mexico, six out of 10 software programmes sold are pirate copies, as are seven out of 10 music compact discs, six out of 10 videos, and three out of 10 bottles of perfume, according to the Mexican Institute of Intellectual Property.

* Mario Osava in Brazil and Diego Cevallos in Mexico contributed to this report.