STOP MAI

MEDIA RELEASE -for immediate release, 17 October, 2001 Authorised by the STOP-MAI Campaign Coalition (WA) Website http://members.iinet.net.au/~jenks/fair.html Affiliated with the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network (AFTInet) and with the World Social Forum (WSF)

 

Qatar trade summit crumbles to powder as Bush fails to assure security for delegates

A special meeting of the General Council of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva today is set to cancel the 9-13 November ministerial summit in Doha, Qatar, which has been the subject of two years' intensive planning.

The weekend's APEC meeting in Shanghai will now see a desperate last-ditch scramble to save the summit by scaling it down at a different venue where the security of delegates is less compromised by the "war against terrorism".

In any event, the summit seems doomed to disharmony and failure for the same reason which caused collapse of the previous 1999 Seattle talks--refusal by third-world countries to adopt the rich nations' goal of untrammelled trade liberalisation.

Being well aware of this likelihood, the US and EU have been vigorously engaged for many months in bilateral talks with key opponents of a new trade round, seeking to break down resistance with bribery including bilateral aid and investments.

The Government of Qatar is understood to have invested over $US50 million to host the summit and is reportedly reluctant to pass it up without massive compensation for its outlays--and for the loss of the tourism surge which was being banked on.

The New York Times, October 15, reported President Bush as stating that the ministerial would be held as planned, no matter what. However, US bombing of Afghanistan has caused the targeted Al-Quaeda network to warn U.S. and British citizens to leave the Arabian peninsula or "the ground would burn beneath their feet".

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PHONE CONTACTS: Brian Jenkins +61 8 9528 1864; Dion Giles 0411 745 538