People's Democracy

 DELHI

 Anti-WTO Meet Welcomes Cancun Development

THE WTO Virodhi Bharatiya Jan Abhiyan has welcomed the recent developments at Cancun. The most important development is the re-emergence of the solidarity of the South. Early indications were visible in Geneva in the formation of G-21, on agriculture, on the eve of the Cancun meeting. The role played by Brazil, China, India and South Africa in this respect deserves congratulations. Not only that it exposed the self-serving and unfair proposals of the USA and EU on agriculture; it also helped build the cross-continental foundation for the re-emergence of the solidarity of the South that was witnessed in Cancun.

Meeting at Delhi on September 19, the WTO Virodhi Bharatiya Jan Abhiyan said the deadlock at the Cancun meeting has, at least for the time being, held back serious threats to our agriculture and our autonomy of economic policy making in regard to investments and other related areas.

The revised proposals on agriculture put forward at the Cancun meeting were too soft on the USA and EU in regard to their commitments to reduce domestic support and export subsidies. But the proposals required the third world to reduce tariffs substantially and rapidly, and indeed asked for certain tariff lines to be bound at nominal rates between 0 and 5 per cent. This implied a general worsening of the distortions and unfairness in the world agriculture market. Even worse, this posed a serious danger to the third world agriculture and to the survival of the millions dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. That these proposals were rejected by G-21 is a matter of satisfaction. However, the revised proposals have exposed the inherent weakness of the government belief that tariff instrumentality is adequate to protect this vital sector from the onslaught of the multinational agri-businesses of the USA and EU. At Cancun, it was precisely the tariff instrumentality which was sought to be blunted and made virtually useless for the third world. The anti-WTO meeting, therefore, reiterated that nothing short of claiming and asserting our right to impose quantitative restrictions on agricultural imports can save our agriculture and safeguard the livelihood of the 70 per cent of our population. The meeting once again urged the government of India to incorporate this element as the central part of its strategy on agricultural negotiations in the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The meeting further noted that the deadlock in Cancun has also helped to keep the formal negotiations on the so-called Singapore issues at bay. And this has been made possible because the developing countries including the groups of African, Caribbean, Pacific (ACP) countries, the Least Developed Countries, the African Union and others like India, Brazil and Malaysia held together and insisted that the clarification process must continue and that there was no consensus on starting the negotiations. While this is welcome, it must be remembered that the legacy of the Doha declaration, whereby the investment, competition policy, government procurement and trade facilitation were brought on the agenda, is still alive. There are also reports that the government has indicated willingness to accommodate the developed countries in regard to the commencement of negotiations on government procurement and trade facilitation. The WTO Virodhi Bharatiya Jan Abhiyan reiterated its opposition to multilateral disciplines on all the Singapore issues and urged the government not to agree to any proposal for such disciplines on these issues.

On the issue of services, the WTO Virodhi Bharatiya Jan Abhiyan noted that at Cancun, there was an attempt to reduce the aim of the negotiations simply to “progressively higher levels of liberalisation,” whereas the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) itself recognises the development dimension explicitly and unambiguously. Also, there was no recognition that provision of services like education, health and water supply, which constitute the basic human rights, cannot be allowed to be commodified and, therefore, such sectors should be taken off from the negotiation process. It is acknowledged on all sides that there is lack of relevant statistics and this makes it impossible for the developing countries to assess the costs and benefits of liberalisation of services in various sectors. There is mandatory provision in GATS for making such an assessment before starting on a new round of liberalisation. However, this basic shortcoming is ignored and the negotiations are sought to be pushed at full speed. The meeting urged the government to take a clear stand on these aspects when the process of negotiations is resumed.

That the breakdown of Cancun meeting has averted the immediate disaster in the areas of agriculture and the Singapore issues is a positive development. And all those in the camp of the South (whether in the conference hall or outside) who brought it about deserve congratulations. The task now is to ensure that the space gained at Cancun is not allowed to be frittered away in the next three months or so, i e by the time the general council of the WTO is scheduled to meet in Geneva to take the process further. The danger is that trade majors will now resort to a bilateral process to complete the unfinished tasks of Cancan. Important member of G-21 as well as the ACP and other groupings will be subjected to pressures and blandishments. And it is here that the solidarity of the South will be tested. In this connection ---

1) The meeting urged the government of India to further strengthen its stand on agriculture, the Singapore issues and services

2) It urged the government to reinforce the solidarity of the South in WTO and resist individually and collectively the onslaught of the developed countries and their multinationals.

3) It urged the government to defeat the possible moves on part of the developed countries to make the decision-making process undemocratic and non-transparent in the name of improving the operational efficiency of the WTO.

The meeting was attended former prime minister V P Singh, CPI general secretary A B Bardhan, All India Kisan Sabha general secretary K Varadharajan, and others. (INN)