PHA-Exchange> AFRICAN PEOPLE’S DECLARATION ON AFRICA AND THE WTO

[Aviva]

From: Firoze Manji <firoze at fahamu.org>
 <EQUINET-Newsletter at equinetafrica.org>

AFRICAN PEOPLE’S DECLARATION ON AFRICA AND THE WORLD 
TRADE ORGANISATION
Statement Issued At The End Of Joint Africa Trade Network (ATN)  
Southern African Peoples Solidarity Network (SAPSN) Pre-Cancun Strategy
Conference, In Johannesburg 14-17 August 2003
(excerpts)

1.  From 14-17 August 2003, we activists from across Africa,  
representing African civil society organisations, labour unions and  
other social movements, gathered in Johannesburg, South Africa to  
evaluate the current state of negotiations in the World Trade  
Organisation (WTO), and to strategise and make known our positions on  
the 5th WTO Ministerial Conference due to be held in Cancun, Mexico  
from 10-14 September 2003.

2.  Our stand on WTO's role: We re-affirm our recognition of the WTO as
 
a key instrument of transnational capital in its push for corporate  
globalisation.  We noted the many destructive effects of WTO agreements
 
on the lives of working people and the poor, especially women, in  
Africa and throughout the world.  We renewed our determination to  
continue resisting corporate globalisation, and the WTO itself until it
 
is replaced by a fully democratic institution.

3.  The context of Cancun Meeting: We noted that the forthcoming WTO  
Ministerial meeting is taking place against a background of a crisis of
 
credibility of neo-liberal policies and global capitalism, that have  
been deepened by the Enron and other corporate scandals exposing the  
duplicity and venality of the bosses of transnational capital.  At the 
same time, the world is faced with the aggressive militarism of the  
United States under a political leadership whose illegal attack on Iraq
 
under false pretences has shown that law and morality are no bar to  
what it will do to advance the interests of American capital.  Across  
Africa and in other developing countries neo-liberal economic policies 
are putting basic services, such as health and education, beyond the  
reach of ordinary people and deepening unemployment, poverty and social
 
inequality.  We, however, take heart from the growing strength in the  
organised expression of all those around the world opposed to  
militarism and corporate globalisation.

4.  Conclusions on the current state of affairs in WTO: After our  
deliberations on the WTO Doha agenda and related issues, we concluded  
as follows:
a.  The WTO has ignored the continued and growing opposition by popular
 
movements throughout the world to its policies and methods, such as the
 
illegitimate ways by which the Doha Agenda was imposed on developing  
countries in the 4th Ministerial of the WTO.
b.  The failure of the WTO to meet agreed deadlines in various  
negotiations - notably Agriculture, TRIPS and Public Health, Special  
and Differential Treatment and the many Implementation Issues is  
primarily due to the refusal of the Quad (USA, EU, Japan and Canada) to
 
accept the legitimate demands of developing countries.
c.  These failures are merely an aspect of the double standards the  
Quad countries apply in international trade issues; marked by one set  
of rules for themselves and another that they impose on developing  
countries, exposing the WTO as a thoroughly undemocratic institution.
d.  We particularly condemn both the EU and the US for their role in  
resisting the fulfilment of the deadlines and undertakings on  
Agriculture, and their refusal to honour the compromise consensus on  
TRIPS and Public Health.
e.  On the Singapore or New Issues (i.e.  Investment, Competition,  
Government Procurement and Trade Facilitation) we reiterate our total  
opposition to their inclusion in the WTO, or the initiation of  
discussions on modalities with a view to the launch of negotiations on 
these in Cancun.  We stand by our demand that these issues should be  
removed from the WTO's agenda altogether.
f.  It is clear that, as Cancun approaches, the Quad are accelerating  
the deployment of old and new undemocratic practices and pressures both
 
in and outside the WTO so as to force their will on developing  
countries.  In order to limit such illegitimate and underhand practices
 
by the powerful, we endorse the campaign for internal transparency and 
participation in the WTO recently launched by many NGOs.
g.  We note the opposition to the launch of negotiations on these  
issues expressed by African countries, especially the declaration by  
African Trade Ministers at the end of their meeting in Mauritius in  
June 2003.  We also note a new initiative taken at the WTO on 13 August
 
by a group of African countries to demand that the official WTO text  
that goes to Cancun includes proposals for improving the  
decision-making process in the WTO; as well as repeating their  
opposition to the new issues.  We call on these countries to stand by  
these positions, as a matter of democratic principle, and also urge  
other African and developing countries to join them.
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