STOP MAI

MEDIA RELEASE -for immediate release, 17 November, 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)

 

Nothing new about "New Trade Round"

The tortuous Doha summit of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) produced a new round of doublespeak and bullying by the world's rich nations, but repeated its 1999 Seattle failure to launch a genuine new round of trade negotiations. In fact, it was agreed new issues cannot be formally negotiated until at least 2004.

Trade Minister Mark Vaile has hailed the mandate to advance existing negotiations on agriculture and to "phase out export subsidies, achieve major reductions in agricultural support levels and secure significant improvement in market access."
[Source: media release MVT151/2001, 15 Nov 2001.]

However, while acknowledging that the 6-day conference made some advances in agriculture, intellectual property (TRIPS) and trade in services, the StopMAI Coalition agrees with the interpretation of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network (AFTINET) which said in a statement yesterday (16 November):

"Developing country governments strongly opposed negotiations on the new issues of investment, competition policy and government procurement. The compromise was that these issues remain on the WTO agenda for discussion , but negotiations will not take place on any of them until after the next Ministerial Meeting in 2003, " on the basis of a decision to be taken by explicit consensus". This means that the WTO objective of a completely "new round " of negotiations now has not been achieved . This gives time for both developing country governments and social movements to further campaign against these issues."

Representatives of civil society have commented on "the high-handed unethical negotiating practices of the developed countries like the Green Room process, linking aid budgets and trade preferences to the trade positions of developing countries, and targeting individual developing country negotiators. Countries like India initially held a high moral ground but caved in to the intense pressure exerted by the troika of the US, EU and the WTO's Director General Mike Moore." [Source: 15 Nov Media Release of WTO Wirodhi Bharatiya Jan Abhiyan (Indian People's Campaign against WTO)]

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