Opportunity for a New Approach
After WTO Talks Break Down, What Next?
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Some people used to think that the World Trade Organization was trying to make a fairer commerce system for everyone. No one is falling for that any more. The WTO is just an attempt by privileged countries to extend and solidify special privileges that they don't deserve. Here are portions of a news item from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. |
Badly Needed Reform Must Put Peoples' Interests First
The July 24 collapse of world trade talks in Geneva provides an important opportunity for WTO members to inject some fresh thinking into the international trading system that better reflects the interests of working people around the world, said the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP).Carin Smaller, Director of IATP’s Geneva Office, commented on the day's events:
“It is time to confront the limitations of the current model and turn toward devising multilateral trade rules focused on improving people’s livelihoods, increasing employment and providing the space for poor countries to develop their economies.”
“The direction of the WTO and the current negotiations were so unpopular that members decided to suspend the Doha talks indefinitely. WTO members are confronting a hard reality. The contradictions between the promised benefits at the global level and the empirical evidence on the ground are harder and harder to explain. People around the world are aware of how the liberalization of trade and finance is affecting their daily lives and are refusing to accept the current approach.”
“The current WTO system has been devastating for small scale farmers all over the developing world and hasn't worked for family farmers in the U.S. either. There is a fairly broad consensus that we have a system that is cracking at its seams. A series of studies over the last year by institutions such as the World Bank, different UN agencies and researchers from the Carnegie Foundation for International Peace concluded that rich countries will reap far more benefits than poor countries from a Doha Round, and the projected benefits for the poorest countries are steadily shrinking.
“WTO members can no longer pretend that this new evidence does not exist. We know a lot more than we did 10 years ago when the WTO began. People will no longer accept an outcome that will continue to devastate rural communities and undermine access to decent working conditions.”
The unpopularity of the Doha Agenda was evident at the June mini-Ministerial. The immediate blame for the failure was placed on the United States. U.S. Trade Representative, Susan Schwab, came to Geneva with strict instructions from the U.S. Congress not to make any reductions to corporate welfare giveaways without significant gains for market access. The current U.S. Congress has little appetite for trade deals -- the U.S-Oman trade agreement, up for a vote this coming week, passed the Senate by an exceptionally low vote (60 in favour; 34 against). With record low public support for the Bush Administration, and mid-term elections in November, U.S. Congress looks unlikely to support any trade deal that they can't sell as a win for U.S. corporations. They look still less likely to ask any sacrifice of corporate welfare handouts to agribusiness corporations and the commodity lobbies.
The reality in the U.S., however, should not mask the unpopularity of the Doha Agenda around the world. All over the developing world, business organizations, trade unions, farm groups and governments have expressed fears that the agreements could displace local agricultural production, force factories to close, and result in massive job losses and lost government revenue due to the reductions in tariffs. Big powers from the developing world have strong domestic constituencies opposed to aspects of the Doha Agenda, and they are growing increasingly vocal: India's 650 million subsistence farmers; industrial trade unions in Argentina, Brazil and South Africa; fisherfolk in the Philippines; millions of subsistence rice farmers in Indonesia; and textile workers all over South Asia and Southern Africa. The growing power of developing countries in the global trade talks makes it ever harder for negotiators from the G6 to ignore these voices.
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The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy works globally to promote resilient family farms, communities and ecosystems through research and education, science and technology, and advocacy. www.iatp.org.
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Also see: Corrupt Government Giveaways Will Continue, Admits Congressman
Powerful Nations Try to Extend Special Privileges
Liberty Wins One Battle Against International Special Privilege |
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