Behind the Scenes at the World Trade Talks
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September 8, 2003
While the World Trade Organisation (WTO) holds its Fifth Ministerial Conference in Cancun, Mexico, it is high time to recognize the climate of fear, bribery and bullying in which supposedly "democratic" global trade negotiations take place. World hunger, jobs, and the overall economic prospects of developing and developed countries alike are being shaped more and more by a process that involves systematic corruption and abuse of power.
While the official picture is one of rules-based consensus emerging out of multilateral discussions in which all WTO member countries are equal participants, the reality could not be more different. The USA and European Union dominate WTO outcomes, irrespective of the views and interests of most developing countries, who form the great majority of the membership.
Threats and abuses at Doha Before, during and after the WTO’s Fourth Ministerial Conference, in Doha, Qatar, in November 2001, we interviewed WTO ambassadors from over 30 countries, as well as staff members from inside the WTO itself, as part of a project co-sponsored by a group of international non-governmental organizations (NGOs). As our new book Behind the Scenes at the WTO: The Real World of International Trade Negotiations reveals, our interviews uncovered a catalogue of threats and abuses. Crucial WTO meetings are held behind closed doors, excluding participants with critical interests at stake, and with no formal record of the discussion. When developing country delegates are, in principle, entitled to attend meetings, they are not informed when or where they are to be held. In any case, the tiny delegations of the poorest and smallest countries have only a limited capacity to calculate in advance the implications of what they are being asked to sign up to. Meetings are held without translation into the languages of many participants, to discuss documents which are available only in English, and which have been issued only hours before, or even at the meeting itself. And developing country ministers have been physically barred from taking part in negotiations affecting their countries, while rich countries have threatened to withdraw aid from countries that do not sign trade deals. Those most familiar with issues (ambassadors) are sometimes discouraged or prevented from speaking in discussions about them at ministerial meetings. “Consultations” with members on key decisions are held one-to-one, in private, with no written record, and the interpretation is left to an individual who has a stake in the outcome. Protestations that inconvenient views have been ignored in this process fall on deaf ears. Chairs of committees and facilitators are selected by a small clique and often have a vested interest in the issues for which the committee is responsible. The established principle of decision-making by consensus is routinely overridden. The views of decision-makers are “interpreted” rather than a formal vote being taken, even in such key decisions as the selection of Mike Moore as WTO Director General and the chairmanship of the Trade Negotiations Committee. Rules are ignored when they are inconvenient, and a blind eye is turned to blackmail and inducements. We could go on. More bullying on the road to Cancun The run-up to the Cancun Ministerial has been a deja-vu of the Doha negotiations, with bullying strategies fully employed. So much is now at stake. Contrary to the official spin of the EU and USA, the ratcheting open of markets will not benefit the developing world. Already, the disaster from the Uruguay Round is clear – Africa’s share of world trade, then 8 per cent has fallen to 2 per cent today.
Ministers of the developing world are being blackmailed, bribed and browbeaten so that their sullen compliance can be attained. Whether they will meekly acquiesce, a few maybe even croaking the praises of their neo-colonial masters (as happened at the conclusion of the Doha Ministerial), or stand upright, remains to be seen. But clearly, despite all assertions, this is no “multilateralism” but an institution firmly in the grip of the powerful, finding yet more ways to plunder the South. Any country whose political system operated as the WTO does would be rightly condemned by the international community as undemocratic and corrupt. It would also face a real and constant threat of revolution. No developed country would contemplate running its government in this way. Yet Northern governments seem happy both to exploit the system and to defend it against pressure for democratic reform at the international level. All those concerned to make international institutions more transparent and democratic – governments, aid agencies, NGOs, enlightened private sector companies, and the general public – must redouble their efforts. We must continue to demand that the rules being developed for the world economy be primarily geared to solving the pressing humanitarian problems of poverty, hunger, jobs and improvements in the standards of living of all those being left behind by the process of globalization. Fatoumata Jawara and Aileen Kwa wrote the book Behind the Scenes at the WTO: The Real World of International Trade Negotiations (published by Zed Books) as part of a project co-sponsored by Save the Children UK, Oxfam GB, Christian Aid, CAFOD, the World Development Movement and ActionAid, in collaboration with Focus on the Global South. Fatoumata Jawara and Aileen Kwa are interviwed on OneWorld TV. --- OneWorld Guest Editorials represent the viewpoint of the authors and not necessarily that of the OneWorld Network. Read and comment on previous Guest Editorials. If you would like to contribute or suggest a future OneWorld Guest Editorial, please contact Miles Litvinoff. |
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