2001 WTO meeting results for agriculture, environment, etc.

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How the agreement at the November 2001 WTO meeting in Qatar will affect agriculture, the environment, etc.

[Notes added by OCA in red. It could have been worse--developing countries did obtain a politically important but nonbinding statement that they could obtain or manufacture generic drugs in the times of health crises, and the US and Europe's ambitious agenda for future talks was drastically scaled back. Nevertheless, there were many negative outcomess--see below.]

(WTO "ISSUES AT HAND" SUMMARY

ASSOCIATED PRESS: The 10-page declaration adopted by ministers at the World Trade Organization meeting agrees to negotiations among the organization's 142 members. It sets a deadline of January 1, 2005 for completing the talks covering the following issues:

Agriculture: Cuts in tariffs, reductions of export subsidies "with a view to phasing out" substantial reductions in trade-distorting domestic subsidies. [These cuts were fought by Europe, in particular, and Japan. Their domestic agriculture is highly protected. The new policy will devastate their touristic countrysides and their link to their rural heritages. Food will be cheaper, but people in these countries aren't starving, so price reductions should not have been that important. In fact, the reason Europe agreed to this provision is that developing countries, in general, have little to sell except food and textiles (their resources are already tied up by government or foreign monopolies). Increased access to western food markets was the price of keeping developing countries on board for Europe's and the US's major goal: agreement on a new round of talks (which they got). A new round of talks would a) to keep the markets happy by proving the WTO could guarantee a 'stable' investment climate, and b) opening of the huge new issue of services to foreign investment, where Western countries are holding all the cards.]
Services: Increasing access for banking, insurance and other companies and increasing opportunities for people to work in other countries. [These service areas can now be negotiated between countries, to allow foreign corporations in. If the Qatar talks had collapsed without an agreement to have new talks, these service areas would not be on the agenda.]
Nonagricultural goods: Reducing and eliminating tariffs and other barriers, particularly on products that are important to developing countries. [The second concession to developing countries, which make up 3/4 of the WTO membership (decisions have to be unanimous). The developing countries were very annoyed that the rich countries have not made good on their promises of more open markets, made in Seattle. In particular, this tariff reduction benefits textile-exporting countries like Pakistan, a new US ally in the Afghan war.]
WTO rules: Subsidies for goods like steel and textiles and when "anti-dumping" duties can be imposed on them, improvements to the system for settling disputes. [The US has been complaining about dumping of steel by countries like Brazil and South Korea; although the US House of Representatives told the US negotiators not to waver on strong enforcement of anti-dumpting regulations for national security purposes, the US negotiators sold out our steel industry and steel workers for their higher goal, a new round of talks.]
Environment: The relationship between WTO rules and international environmental treaties, reducing or eliminating tariffs on environmental goods and services, fisheries subsidies, will be discussed. [This provision is quite weak--it only requires discussion, no action. Europe came to the meeting with a strong Green mandate and support for the precautionary principle in GMO labeling and food imports, but could not get any other support, so it dropped both issues.]
Other issues: Include investment, competition policy, transparency in government procurement and customs procedures, all of which could be subject to negotiations in two years, if all governments agree. [Here's what the US wants for future WTO talks: investment, competition and transparency in government procurement are elements of the heinous Multilateral Agreement on Investment, which so far has not been implemented. The US wants its companies to have access to government procurement everywhere, which means that furniture in Chile, stationery in Greece, transport services in New Zealand and postal sorting equipment in Argentina, would be required to be equally open to US companies as well as domestic companies. If all governments agree--and we hope they don't--to "transparency in government procurement"--goodbye to local self-sufficiency, the ability of governments to have domestic content laws, preference for local employment, and support for necessary but unprofitable or marginally profitable businesses (like shipbuilding in the US).]
In addition, the meeting did not address the ongoing scandal of patenting of life, or the rights of local communities to seeds and biodiversity.

VIA CAMPESINA:
STRONGLY CONDEMNS WTO DECLARATION
U.S. AND EU IMPOSED A NEW ROUND IN DOHA,
CITIZENS FURTHER PUSHED DOWN THE ROAD
OF CORPORATE NEO-LIBERALISATION
After an outrageous process the United States and the European Union managed to push their interests down the throats of the majority of the WTO members. Instead of showing leadership in constructive cooperation the "big two" just fought their corporate interests through at the expense of the vast majority of the world's population.

The final declaration is extremely unfair and biased against developing countries. This declaration has been drawn up in the most undemocratic manner with devious manipulative tactics that are totally unacceptable in an international organization. The decision taking process turned out to be worse than in Seattle. Hope for reform of the WTO seems non existent at the moment except for a small reference to the dispute settlement mechanism.

Due to a steadily better organized opposition, a large number of southern governments felt backed up and encouraged by a strong international coalition of social movements and resisted the bullying tactics of the "big two." In a successful last attempt India and a number of other countries blocked the launch of negotiations on four important new issues which would have included essentially a revival of the Multilateral agreement on investment.

However any attempt to evaluate and repair the disastrous effects of decisions taken by WTO were effectively blocked by the rich countries. On the contrary negotiations on liberalization of agriculture and services will be accelerated. Governments will remain under strong pressure to further liberalize their economies. Farmers around the world will continue to suffer.

Concerning the agenda on agriculture, Via Campesina remains extremely concerned. The negotiations on agriculture still seem to be a fight between the "corporate elephants of the agro-industry" represented by the European Union, the United States and the CAIRN group instead of a negotiation on how to come to fair, equitable trade relations that give protection to domestic food production and consumption and the world's environment.

After the Ministerial Meeting in Qatar Via Campesina is even more that an alternative frame work to deal with food production is urgent. A frame work that will be able to set limits and rules for the WTO and will establish the right of food sovereignty at the international level. Via Campesina together with a other organizations, all members of the Coalition "Our world is not for Sale" have launched their proposals in "Priority to peoples food sovereignty --- WTO out of agriculture."
Our Coalition "Our world is not for sale" will come together the beginning of December 2001 with representatives of all networks involved in order to define their common position on the Doha declaration. They will launch, after their initial phase in the run up to Doha, a broad Campaign against the upcoming New Round and put all efforts forward to block these negotiations in order to force the European Union, the United States and other industrialized countries to take into full account the interests of the vast majority of the world population. Via Campesina wants to be one of the main mobilizing forces of this coalition. See http://www.peoplesfoodsovereignty.org/

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