Alliance Activities
in cra-briefings33 · January 20, 2006
Alliance co-chair, Susan Crean attended the 6th Ministerial meetings of the world Trade Organization in Hong Kong December 13th to 18th. These meetings were the next step in the socalled Doha Development Round of negotiations that focus on the GATS agreement in services. The fervent hope of the organizers and the host city was that this time the gathering would make progress. Expectations were lower than at the 5th round, held in Cancun Mexico in 2003, but the stakes were higher as the credibility of the WTO was at stake.
This time non-governmental organizations and the media met in the same complex as the negotiators, at the huge and stately convention and exhibition centre in the middle of Wan Chai. The official agenda consisted of public speeches by various government representatives and officials, leading off with a pep-talk by the WTO’s new Director General, Pascal Lamy quoting the popular Chinese proverb, “If you don’t go into the cave of the tiger, how will you get its cub?” and exhorting the assembly to “be open-minded, be bold, be courageous. Enter the cave of the tiger and leave Hong Kong with a prize in your hands the assurance that the Doha Development Round has a real chance…”
Throughout the seven days, there were meetings, workshops, press conferences, and twice daily briefings at the Canadian delegation by Canada’s from chief negotiator John Gero and Don Stephenson, Canadian Ambassador to the WTO.
During the week a number of international and regional NGOs and local interest groups staged workshops on site and elsewhere in Hong Kong, and a Trade and Development Symposium that included a trade fair of (textiles, jewelry, clothes) produced under fair trade conditions in Asia was presented held by an international alliance led by OXFAM. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong hosted a roster of workshops and power lunches at the Ritz Carleton (including a session by the Canadian Teachers Federation on the commercialization of education). The International Network for Cultural Diversity (INCD) presented an evening event, a lively combination of screenings and presentations by activists from New Zealand, China, Australia, and the Philippines. Maori singer, songwriter Moana Maniapoto screened the film “Guarding the Family Silver” which documents the experience she had when a German businessman trademarked her name and threatened to sue her if she used it for commercial purposes, like selling concert tickets or CDs. The workshop was titled “Defending Cultural Diversity from the WTO” and MC’d by New Zealand law professor and activist Jane Kelsey (and INCD Steering Committee member), and Professor Stephen Ching-Kiu Chan who a core member of the People`s Panel on West Kowloon (Lingnan University).
Human Rights, Trade & Development
A NGO Human Rights Caucus formed in advance of the WTO meetings, met in Hong Kong several times. A declaration was released on December 10th addressing the impact of free trade on human rights, arguing that trade agreements should take these into account. The statement was signed 120 NGOs including the CRA/ADC. The work in Hong Kong was led by Montreal based Rights and Democracy’s Carole Samdup, and Carin Smaller of Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) which together organized a session at the Trade and Development Symposium on Human Rights “Trade Rules and the Right to Food”. There were several Canadian participants in the HR Caucus including Foodgrains Bank, OXFAM, the North-South Institute, the Canadian Council for International Cooperation (CCIC) and the Quaker International Affairs Program. The HR Caucus Statement read in part,
Increased trade can undoubtedly serve as one means for the realization of human rights-especially the right to development—but it does not automatically or necessarily do so. Even when trade does bring increased wealth poor distribution of the benefits both within and between nations, perpetuates poverty and impedes the progressive realization of human rights. ....
Human rights and economic policy are interconnected to a degree that demands coherence in international and national law, policy and practice. In the wider context of the security-development-human rights nexus, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has declared in his March 2005 report, In Larger Freedom, that:
We will not enjoy development without security, we will not enjoy security without development, and we will not enjoy either without respect for human rights. Unless all these causes are advanced, none will succeed.
Nevertheless, the international trade regime has repeatedly denied and rejected any intersection between its mandate and human rights. This is both logically and legally indefensible especially since most WTO members have ratified at least one of the major UN human rights treaties.
A Statement was also circulate by Public Service International (PSI) on behalf of trade unions and NGOs, giving a detailed review of the issues raised by the negotiations.
The current trade > growth > development paradigm is a failure, as even the World Bank, the IMF and OECD data is beginning to acknowledge. More trade can, under certain circumstances, create growth. Yet we must always ask: what kind of growth; growth for whom? Today it is jobless growth, a phenomenon widely known around the globe. Trade and domestic growth statistics today are meaningless indicators of true national wealth (though they do indicate corporate wealth!), the well being of the people of a country. What ultimately counts is the kind of growth and the pattern of development these statistics describe and whether that pattern tells us that farmers and workers are on the way to obtaining decent incomes and decent working conditions and livelihoods or whether, on the contrary, they can look forward to the continued growth of poverty and insecurity.
The Statement called for a moratorium on the current negotiations, and for a full public assessment of the employment, social, environmental and cultural impacts of existing trade and investment rules. Here’s the full text.
The results of Hong Kong?
In the course of the negotiations there were two events of note. First, the emergence of the Group of 110 or G110 which held a press conference on December 16th calling its formation historic and stating that as 110 of the WTO’s 149 members, representing four-fifths of humanity, they had “bonded on the issues”, that their purpose was to “stop the iniquities of global trade.” The session was chaired by the minister of Brazil.
Second, in addition to the demonstrations outside in the streets of Hong Kong, there were small and ingenious protests staged by NGO representatives inside the convention centre. Thus the issues of poverty, displacement, lack of food and ill-health, the human costs of free trade, were kept in the frame of the discussions. Immediately following the press conference of the G110, for example, a group of farmers gathered on the steps leading in from the grand entrance, holding placards with messages like “U.S. Family Farmers want fair market prices not subsidies”, and blowing whistles. The sound was eerie and close to ear splitting, and at odds with the peaceful attitude of the two dozen farmers from France, West Africa, Cambodia, Brazil, Japan, the US and Canada’s (UPI’s Andr Beaudoin) who stood there insistently but patiently reminding negotiators of the fundamentals: the right of countries to protect local production, to collective marketing and supply management, and to food sovereignty, sustainable agriculture and safe food for children.
Human Rights Caucus
In its press release on December 19th, the NGO Human Rights Caucus stated the outcome of the meetings would “rollback the enjoyment of human rights around the world”. The failure of the talks to achieve a true development outcome was a direct consequence of the refusal to acknowledge the impact of trade policy on human rights.
Despite the announcement of a “development package,” the agreement further restricts the policy space required for national governments to implement their human rights obligations, which are integral to development.
Many developing countries have complained of political pressure exerted by developed country capitals to give further concessions on services and non-agricultural market access (NAMA) in exchange for a limited compromise on agriculture and an illusory deal on access to medicines.
Developing countries are being forced to choose between putting food on the table and providing adequate healthcare for their people, Caucus members emphasized. Access to adequate food, health and education are all human rights and must not become bargaining chips in a power game between unequal players.
Full text of the Statement and Press release.
Reuters coverage.
The text of the Draft Ministerial Declaration.
Creators’ Rights Alliance – UK
On the way to Hong Kong, Susan Crean was able to attend the yearend meeting of the CRA in London. There was much discussion there of new licensing regimes being introduced with the active support of by groups like the Creative Commons and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, without consideration for or input from creators. This is apparently the case of the recently launched Creative Archive License by a consortium of public institutions including the BBC, the British Film Institute, Open University and the Teachers’ Channel. The slogan they have adopted, to be found on the BBC’s website, goes “find it, rip it, mix it, share it.” More information from the BBC.