By Mario Osava
SAO PAULO, Jun 13 2004 (IPS)

Further consolidation of the unity of nations of the South was the principal outcome of the ministerial meeting of the Group of 20 developing countries (G20) opposed to distortions of agricultural trade in the WTO, held in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo.

That was the conclusion reached by activist Adriano Campolina, regional director of Action Aid International in the Americas and one of the three representatives of civil society who addressed the ministers at their meeting Saturday.

The participation in the meeting of the coordinator of the Group of 90 (G90), Foreign Trade and International Cooperation Minister of Guyana Clement Rohee, sealed – at the ministerial level – the unity of the developing world in the multilateral trade talks, said Campolina.

The alliance between different groupings of countries of the South was reinforced by the defence of ”special and differentiated treatment” for the least developed countries (LDCs) and solidarity with African cotton-growing nations expressed in the statement released by the ministerial meeting, Campolina told IPS.

The G90 links the countries of the African Union, the LDC Group, and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, agricultural exporting nations that were once European colonies.

Like the G20, the G90 took shape within the ambit of last year’s WTO (World Trade Organisation) ministerial conference in Cancun, Mexico, giving a unified voice to opposition to the attempts by the United States and European Union (EU) to include the so-called Singapore issues – investment, competition policy, transparency in government procurement and trade facilitation – in the negotiations.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim delivered a speech, as spokesman for the G20, at the G90 ministerial meeting held Jun. 3 in Guyana.

Action Aid, Oxfam International and the Brazilian Network for the Integration of the Peoples urged the G20 on Saturday to remain united ”in the face of the heavy political pressure” to divide it, and to forge ties with other groups of the South that have organised to defend the needs of the developing world, like the G90 and the G33 (countries heavily dependent on a handful of commodities).

Oxfam and the other non-governmental organisations (NGOs) praised ”the strategic vision and political will” of the G20, which is pushing in the WTO for outcomes in favour of the developing world.

The groups also recognised the G20’s major contribution to the shift in the balance of power in the multilateral negotiations, since Cancun.

The NGOs also called on the G20 to consult civil society in the preparations for next year’s WTO ministerial conference in Hong Kong, in order to strengthen the dialogue with the people.

The G20 took stock of the negotiations and of its own role in them, and expressed support for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), whose 11th ministerial conference opened Sunday and runs through Friday in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s biggest city.

The intensification of South-South trade, promoted by UNCTAD, should be a priority for all of the members, says the G20 statement, which reaffirms the new bloc’s unity and positions.

The group is united in the push for progress in the talks on agriculture on three fronts: an end to subsidies for farm exports; a reduction in domestic supports that distort international trade; and greater market access, said Foreign Minister Amorim.

In response to criticism from negotiators from rich countries and the press, who argue that India also practices agricultural protectionism and could hurt the unity of the group in its attempts to open up markets, India’s Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath underlined his total commitment to the G20 and the ”three pillars” of the negotiations.

The trade ministers of Nigeria and South Africa, Idris Adamu Waziri and Lndiwe Hendrix, expressed similar sentiments.

The G20’s great contribution has been to clarify the concepts that should orient the proposals set forth in the multilateral talks, said Argentina’s Deputy Foreign Minister Martin Redrado.

One concept is ”progressivity” in tariff reductions through deeper cuts in higher tariffs and direct attacks on ”tariff peaks” of up to 500 percent, applied by developed nations, he explained.

Another is ”flexibility” in recognising the differences and economic asymmetries between countries and the absolute need of some countries to defend agriculture.

The situation of India’s farmers, for whom agriculture is a question of survival, is very different from that of European farmers, said Amorim, referring to the huge subsidies shelled out to agriculture in the EU.

There are prospects for progress in the WTO agriculture talks, that form part of the Doha Round that was launched at the global trade body’s ministerial meeting in the capital of Qatar in November 2001, said Amorim.

The minister was referring to statements by EU negotiators, according to which the bloc would agree to set a deadline for eliminating farm export subsidies as long as there is ”parallelism” – measures by exporter rivals to match EU concessions, such as abolishing other forms of export promotion that harm developing countries, like U.S. export credits and export support in the guise of ”food aid”.

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