[Pakistan] Protest held against rich nations’ attitude at WTO

from The Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Campaigners, activists, workers, farmers and poor people staged a protest demonstration here on Monday against what they call cheating of developing countries by rich countries monopolizing international trade negotiations in their favour.

The protest rally was organized by Actionaid, the Sustainable Agriculture Action Group (SAAG) and other partners as part of the “People’s Week Against WTO deal” being observed in different countries, including Pakistan.

The participants of the rally believed that the WTO is rushing towards an unfair, non- transparent and exclusive deal without respecting the rights of poor countries and commitments made with them.

The entire negotiation process of multilateral trading system has become hostage to the US Congress and is rushing towards a bad deal to meet US fast track authority. Developing countries, poor farmers, workers and consumer will be the net losers, they added.

“The deal on the table at the World Trade Organization will only serve to worsen poverty and Pakistan would be wise to reject it. It’s poor people who will lose out in this latest round of talks. Rich countries are in favour of continuing farm subsidies that will lead to dumping of produce in developing countries. This would put the small farmers out of agricultural trade”, said Abdul Majeed Cheena of the Pakistan Kissan Ittehad

Mustafa Talpur, head of the ActionAid International Pakistan’s trade justice campaign, and other speakers said: “This week there is a chance for the people affected by unjust trade rules to make their collective voices heard. Rich nations have not fulfilled their promise of Doha talks.

Their level of farm support has been increased from $243 billion in 1986-88 to $279 billion in 2003-4. In the European Union’s case domestic support will account for over 80% of its total agricultural expenditure by 2010. It is estimated that by 2013 direct payments in the EU-25 will total about 40 billion euros.

“Rich nations are attempting to force open developing country markets. Critical to this agenda is rich nations’ push to ensure that poorer nations open up industrial and service sectors. There is no development dimension to this agenda. Under these proposals, many developing countries will have to make deep cuts to their tariffs. These cuts will destroy the local industrial base, make the future development prospective bleak, cause mass unemployment and revenue loss. The emerging Pakistani industries such as footwear, electronics, leather, sports, surgical and other industries will face competition from technologically-advanced Western industries.

“The European Union’s push for intensive services liberalization will cause privatization of basic services, including water, health, education as well as strategic sectors such as banking, engineering and distributional services. The services’ privatization, if agreed, will further reduce the role of state in protecting the fundamental rights of the citizens and poor people will be left at the mercy of market.

“The interests of the poor have been totally ignored in the current round of WTO negotiations. The rich countries must stop cheating the poor people and developing countries should reject the WTO deal. The collapse of these talks, the failure of the Seattle and Cancún Ministerial and the plethora of missed deadlines reveals that the WTO is in permanent crisis.

Not only have developed countries driven a Doha anti-development agenda, they have failed to face up to the new geo-political dynamics within the WTO. The collapse of the talks should be seen as an opportunity for change within the multilateral trading system. If there is a lull in the negotiations - which may happen because of the political landscape over the next few years - WTO members and the secretariat need to use the period for reflection, review and reform. However, many people reiterated the same sentiments after Seattle, but nothing ever happened.”