FW: Focus on Trade - Doha - statement of the World Forum

[Claudia Westermann]

>NO TO A NEW ROUND IN DOHA
>STATEMENT OF THE WORLD FORUM ON THE WTO, BEIRUT 5-8 NOVEMBER 2001
>
>Between the 5th and the 8th of November 2001, on the eve of the 4th 
>ministerial meeting of the WTO in Doha, a world forum on globalization and 
>global trade was held in Beirut.
>
>The meeting was attended by civil society representatives from five 
>continents to take a position on the Doha meeting of the WTO and its 
>agenda. The meeting also discussed new global developments and the 
>atmosphere of mil
>itarisation and war that is currently dominating all aspects of life on 
>the planet.
>
>After numerous sessions and workshops, the participants declare the following:
>
>The importance of the Doha meeting is in the fact that it will be the 
>first global meeting after the September 11 attacks and after the start of 
>the war on Afghanistan. It is also held for the first time in Arab country,
>not far from besieged Iraq and from Palestine, where the Palestinian are 
>facing a continuing Israeli occupation.
>
>This new reality should make us cautious against pressures on developing 
>countries to make more concessions. We refuse any use of global trade or 
>its mechanisms as a tool in the current declared war.
>
>Seven years since the creation of the WTO has given us ample time to 
>examine the promises of prosperity, development, opening up of markets to 
>the products of developing nations, and the numerous benefits that the latter
>would have enjoyed from joining the organization. What really happened was 
>completely the opposite. Economic stagnation spread to include more and 
>more countries. Developing countries faced huge losses in their economies
>and exchange. Protectionist measures in the countries of the global north 
>remained an obstacle to the products of the South. Agriculture and food 
>security was hit with tremendous losses and damage. The technological divid
>e between north and south became unprecedented, while barriers to the 
>transfer of technology became stronger, and the workforce was barred from 
>free movement.
>
>The implementation of WTO agreements and its mechanisms has shown that it 
>is completely biased in favor of big multinationals and global capital. 
>The WTO does not give any consideration to international justice, nor to th
>e interests of developing countries, not to the people of the global north 
>themselves. It goes completely against development, and peoples' rights of 
>development, this explains the emergence of a global movement opposed t
>o the existence of the WTO, its role and mechanisms.
>
>The rhetoric of the free market is an ideology biased in favor of global 
>capital. What the WTO seeks is in complete opposition to the principles of 
>social justice, human rights, and international charters. Our criticism o
>f the WTO is based on what humanity had agreed upon decades ago: the UN 
>charters for human rights. The Human Rights declaration of 1986 states, in 
>its first article, that the human right for development requires the compl
>ete implementation of the right of self-determination. That includes the 
>complete and unconflicted sovereignty of people over their natural 
>resources and wealth.
>
>The WTO aims to become a trading authority above countries and nations, 
>thus practically eliminating their ability to formulate social, economic, 
>and financial policies that achieve development. The WTO also removes the a
>uthority of national legal systems in all areas that fall within its 
>scope. This drains the right for development, and the majority of economic 
>and social right of people and individuals, from their meaning. It deprives p
>eople from political, institutional, and legal tools that would allow them 
>to create national development policies and the means to achieve them.
>
>The rules at work in the WTO aim to make trade an absolute and 
>comprehensive principle. They push development, human rights, and the 
>interests of people to the side, where they are readapted to global trade 
>and not the op
>posite.
>
>The creation of a global organization with such power and authority is a 
>dangerous issue in itself. It becomes more and more ominous in light of 
>the current push to militarize globalization and the unipolar hegemony on th
>e global decision.
>
>Based on the above, the participants in the Word Forum in Beirut, and at 
>the conclusion of their discussions, declare the following positions to 
>the 4th ministerial meeting in Doha on the 9th of November 2001:
>
>1) We refuse a new round of negotiations in the WTO and any inclusion of 
>new issues on the agenda, especially those connected with investment, 
>competition, government procurement, and other issues that will overwhelm the
>meeting and puts the delegates of developing countries in a position where 
>it is impossible for them to follow negotiations on all those issues at 
>the same time.
>
>2) We call for the reevaluation of previous agreements in light of the 
>practice of their implementation that showed a great bias against the 
>interests of developing countries. This includes the reevaluation and the 
>correc
>tion, or the annulment, of harmful agreements, or those that where signed 
>under pressure or ignorance. Those being factors that eliminate will and 
>corrupt the contract.
>
>3) We call for the cancellation of agreements on intellectual property 
>that inhibit developing countries from providing adequate health care to 
>their people; that block the transfer of technology, and that protect the int
>erests of supranational organizations and facilitates their pilfering of 
>cultural and genetic heritage of developing countries.
>
>4) We call for the exclusion of agriculture from the scope of the WTO and 
>the ban on dumping practiced by multinational corporations. This means the 
>lift of agricultural subsidies in industrialized countries, and the open
>ing up of their markets to the agricultural products of developing 
>countries. It also includes the right of developing countries to create 
>national policies to develop and protect their agriculture and farmers. It 
>also me
>ans the refusal of any measures that aim to monopolize the production of 
>seeds through patents and genetic modification.
>
>5) We refuse to basic services (water, health, education, etc.) in trade 
>agreements, since these are connected directly to the well being of 
>people. These should remain under the control of people through their 
>national i
>nstitutions and not market forces and the purpose of quick gain.
>
>6) We refuse the inclusion of labor standards in WTO agreements and call 
>for the adherence to the standards of the ILO.
>
>7) We refuse any transgression of international environmental treaties, 
>and we call for the adherence of trade agreements and practices to the 
>respect of environmental safety and health standards.
>
>8) We refuse the internal mechanisms of the WTO, especially its conflict 
>resolution process, since they are neither democratic, nor transparent, 
>nor do they provide equal representation in the decision-making process. We
>call for new mechanisms based on those conditions and the abilities of 
>developing countries.
>
>Global economy and global trade should follow the bases of the 
>consolidation of global justice and equality. They should allow all 
>countries to benefit from economic, scientific, and technological 
>advancement. This way gl
>obal trade will strengthen peace and global stability and not become an 
>instrument in the creation of conflict and war.
>
>Our world is not for sale and peoples' lives and well being are not a 
>material for trade.
>
>The global protest movement that succeeded in stopping the meeting in 
>Seattle two years ago, because of the accumulation of the struggle and 
>coordination and solidarity between its components, is now capable of 
>stopping t
>he new round in Doha and in enforcing the respect of peoples' rights and 
>the rights of developing countries in particular to achieve development, 
>social justice and peace.
>
>Changing the location of WTO meetings from one country to another in order 
>to avoid what happened in Seattle in 1999 will not solve the problem. What 
>we demand is that the WTO changes its mechanisms and content, not the l
>ocation of its meetings. If the WTO does not do so, then any meeting, 
>wherever it may be, will become another Seattle.
>
>Beirut, 8 November 2001
>
>*************************************************
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