Statement:
Solidar Key Demands for the 5th WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancún, September 2003

(Solidar, the European alliance of NGOs involved in social service provision, international cooperation, humanitarian aid and life long learning has published the following demands to the WTO before its ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico. IFWEA and Solidar are mutually affiliated.)

At the 4th Ministerial Conference in Doha in November 2001, WTO members pledged to place the needs of developing countries at the heart of a new trade round. They committed to reducing, with a view to phasing out, agricultural export subsidies and substantial reductions in trade-distorting domestic support. They promised to make provisions on Special and Differential Treatment more effective, operational and precise. They promised a solution to the situation whereby poor countries were still prevented from importing generic drugs to combat major diseases. However, in the eighteen months since Doha, all the deadlines have been missed. The 5th Ministerial Conference in September in Cancún, Mexico, will be a key moment to measure the progress of the Doha Round against its development ambitions. SOLIDAR calls on the European Commission, to push for progress on the following issues: New Rules for Trade and Human Development In the WTO’s current negotiating system, the strongest member states dictate the rules in a system that lacks transparency and political accountability. What is really needed are new rules that favour the weaker member states, especially the poorest countries in the world.

WTO rules directly affect people’s lives worldwide: how they earn their livelihoods, their working conditions, and their access to basic services and affordable medicines. WTO rules should therefore be part of a wider international agenda to achieve poverty eradication, respect of human rights, debt relief and democracy. A strong multilateral system of rules is needed to govern international trade, and to put it to the service of UN Millennium Development Goals. Only then can trade become a true engine for development. UN treaties, internationally endorsed social standards (core labour standards of the ILO) and environmental standards (MEAs) should have primacy over trade rules.

Democracy and Transparency in the WTO

Democratic oversight is needed to ensure that the interests of people and communities take precedence over those of business and profit. This means greater involvement of parliamentarians in the scrutiny and conduct of WTO negotiations but also greater internal and external transparency in the WTO processes, in particular engagement of civil society organisations from all WTO member countries.

Social and environmental concerns should be integrated into all the work of the WTO: increasing the involvement of relevant
UN agencies in the dispute settlement procedure, expanding the scope of the Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM) to include environmental and social concerns, granting reciprocal observer status to the ILO and other international organisations.

Sustainability impact assessments (SIAs) should be started at a multilateral level, covering both developmental and environmental
sustainability and social concerns including core labour standards and the effect of trade on women.

The GATS - increase access to basic services

The scope of current negotiations on the liberalisation of services is broad and includes sectors of vital public goods such as education, health and social services, and public utilities such as water. However, the GATS negotiations are presently driven by the objective of seeking better access for service exporters in foreign markets, without any adequate framework to ensure access to these services for those who need them most.

The EU has recognized that some service sectors, such as education, health and social services, pertain to fundamental economic and social rights, and will not enter into further discussions on liberalisation of these sectors. However, GATS provisions (specifically Article 1.3 (b)) need to be clarified on the right of national governments to regulate their own public services and to keep essential services in the public sector. The GATS agreement should also make clear that ‘the exercise of governmental authority’ allows, without threat of legal challenge, WTO members to exclude competition from public services and services of general interest.

The non-reversible nature of the GATS could undermine the right of governments to exercise full responsibility and accountability in their services sectors. An explicit clause is needed, enabling governments to roll back commitments to improve their public services, without any risk of challenge. GATS should also ensure that obligations can be temporarily deferred in case of serious market disturbances, namely unemployment, wage and price dumping. GATS negotiations also seek to increase cross-border trade in services provided by the temporary movement of workers (Mode 4). While there can be advantages to developing countries from a financial and skills development perspective, it can also lead to brain drain of key professionals such as teachers and nurses. GATS rules should be firmly founded on the internationally agreed core labour standards, and should not permit the employment of individuals under conditions inferior to the internationally agreed core labour standards, undermining national labour laws. Negotiations regarding the movement of workers must be made with reference to the International Labour Organisation and the International Organisation for Migration.

‘No’ to the launch of negotiations on new issues

There is a clear need for legislation at the international level to regulate the activities of large multinational companies. A multilateral investment framework could link basic investment protection for direct investments to compliance with international environmental and social norms, and include them in the development policy priorities of the investment country. This would strengthen the contribution of investment to sustainable

development as well as to higher social and environmental standards. Likewise, a multinational negotiation to monitor international mergers and prevent market abuses by multinational companies would also be welcome, as long as developing countries are free to apply different treatment to domestic companies as far as market share is concerned, and to decide whether or not to legislate on competition policy.

However, the WTO appears to be unable to balance conflicting social, environmental and economic interests. The current proposals on investment are based on the WTO principles of non-discrimination, national treatment and transparency, and the impact would be to increase the privileges of companies while decreasing national policy flexibility and increasing governments’ administrative burden. Furthermore, increasing the scope of negotiations by including the new issues would place an unfair added burden on the negotiation capacities of developing countries.
 

email to IFWEA Journal: Aslak.Leesland@aof.no