AFRICAN MINISTERS AFFIRM OPPOSITION TO NEW ISSUES IN CANCUN

by Tetteh Hormeku, TWN-Africa, Grand Baie, Mauritius, 20 June

African Union ministers of trade, meeting in Mauritius, have re-affirmed the long-standing position of African countries that the forthcoming Cancun Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) should focus on addressing their developmental concerns in the existing agreements, instead of starting negotiations for new agreements, particularly on the so-called Singapore issues – i.e. of investment, competition, government procurement and trade facilitation.

In a declaration adopted unanimously in Grand Baie, Mauritius, on Thursday June 19, the trade ministers noted that "WTO members do not have a common understanding on how [the Singapore issues] should be dealt with procedurally and substantively." And, "taking into account the potential serious implications of these issues on our economies", they called "for further clarification on these issues to continue."

At the same time, the Ministers focused attention on the missed deadlines in the current negotiations on issues such as agriculture, TRIPS and public health, special and differential treatment and implementation-related issues. Expressing concern at this evidence of general lack of progress on the issues of critical concern to their countries, they challenged the members of the WTO to "inject momentum into the negotiations on these issues in order to ensure that the Cancun WTO Ministerial yields positive results for African countries and makes the Doha Work Programme a truly 'Development Agenda'."

The declaration invoked the outcomes of earlier meetings involving African ministers such as the COMESA meeting in Nairobi, SADC in Lusaka, and the LDCs in Dhaka. It was adopted with little drama and no fuss, in an efficient display of unity of purpose and will. This was at the end of a day of deliberations in which a diverse range of speakers –- Ministers, representatives of sister groupings like the ACP group of countries, as well as African civil society organisations -- all urged unity around a common African position as necessary to ensure that the core concerns of Africa prevailed in Geneva and Cancun, whatever pressures are brought to bear on these countries.

Apart from their position on the new issues, the Declaration contained specific positions in all the major areas of the on-going work in the WTO, including agriculture, services, industrial tariff, TRIPS, special and differential treatment, capacity building, and the lack of transparency and inclusiveness in WTO processes.

The Ministers stated that agriculture was of critical importance to Africa's development, with the potential to "lift millions of our people" out of poverty. They added that progress in the agricultural negotiations was essential for the successful conclusion of the Doha work-programme, and strongly urged members to fulfil their Doha commitments. Ministers also noted the need for African countries to continue to enjoy agricultural trade preferences, calling for action to address the erosion of these preferences. Finally, they called for LDCs to be exempt from any obligations to reduce tariffs.

In relation to services, the Declaration charged the Services Council (of the WTO) with failure to satisfy the requirement in the General Agreement in Trade in Services (GATS) to carry out an assessment of trade in services. Furthermore, in a clear reference to the pressures from developed countries to liberalise their service sector against their will, the Ministers called for due respect for their rights to regulate trade in services and liberalise according to their national policy objectives. At the same time they emphasised the respect to the principle of progressive liberalisation subject to the principle of flexibility, as well as the need to promote and facilitate the participation of African countries in international trade in services. Developed countries only should therefore liberalise their sectors and modes that are of export interest to African countries.

On the Doha mandate regarding measures to enable countries which lack manufacturing capacity to access medicine for public health, the Ministers re-stated their support for their compromise deal reached in December last year, and wrecked by the United States. This deal, they added, still remains a means for members to fulfil their obligations as required by the Doha declaration.

For industrial tariffs, the Ministers stated the objectives of the negotiations as being to facilitate the development and industrialisation of African countries. These must be reflected in the modalities and actual negotiations by addressing tariff peaks and escalations, and take fully into account the special needs and interests of developing and least-developed countries. This required, among others, fulfilment of the principles of special and differential treatment, as well as the principle that developing and least developed countries must not make full reciprocal commitments to reduce their tariffs.

The Declaration welcomed proposals to exempt LDCs from making fully reciprocal commitments, and the proposed studies on tariff liberalisation on LDCs. While cognisant of the special situation of LDCs, it calls for the studies to be extended to other African countries, and should take into account the effects of previous liberalisation measures undertaken by these countries as well as the potential impact of any proposed modalities for liberalisation. The Ministers also expressed deep concern that the proposed modalities for liberalisation do not take into account the vulnerabilities of African industries, especially in clothing, fisheries and textile sectors, as well concern of African countries over the erosion of their trade preferences. They called for appropriate modalities to address these concerns.

On special and differential treatment, the declaration re-iterated Africa's oft-stated demand that all S&D provisions in the WTO agreements be reviewed with a view to strengthen them and make them more precise, effective, binding and operational. As on implementation issues, Ministers called for urgent need to complete work in this regard, as a matter of priority before Cancun.

In another declaration on the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), Ministers affirmed the importance of consistency between these negotiations and the aims and objectives as set out in the Constitutive Act of the African Union, with the various regional economic groups as the building blocs of African integration. The EPA declaration also emphasised the importance of the unity and solidarity of the ACP group as necessary for the EPA negotiations.

In clear reference to the pressures by the European Union to rush the process of negotiations and fragment the collective ACP strategy, the Declaration on the EPAs emphasised the "importance of phase I of the negotiations in which ACP groups as a whole negotiated the applicable principles, as a foundation and framework to phase II of the negotiations, during which groups of countries are expected to set out to negotiate free trade agreements with the EU. It also urged the ACP and EU to address all outstanding issues under the phase I negotiations.

Both declarations were adopted following focused deliberations on the measures needed by Africa to ensure that its interests prevailed in the face of stark balance sheet of the disappointed hopes of Doha. In his welcome address to the Ministers, Honourable J Cuttaree, Minister of Industry and International Trade of the Republic of Mauritius asked Ministers to draw their strength and decision of purpose from their unity in order for Africa's pressing concerns over the core issues of the Doha agenda to be recognised in Geneva and Cancun.

He reminded ministers that nineteen months after the hope and optimism evoked with the launch at Doha of trade negotiations under the "title of Development Round", the development agenda is stranded in missed deadlines. The negotiations have failed to yield "balanced outcomes in which the interests of all, particularly those who are in most need are truly attended".

Cuttaree stated that "had the WTO been effective in finding expeditious solutions to the problems of TRIPS and Public Health, we should have seen an improvement for millions of people in Africa who are suffering from deadly diseases".

Nor have African countries had any comfort "on their basic concerns in the areas of special and differential treatment, agriculture, and textiles.

He pointed to the double standards at play in the area of industrial tariffs. Here, proposals to drastically cut and eliminate tariffs, which African countries have already declared a recipe for disaster, are being pursued by countries that had themselves used this instrument in the early stage of their industrialisation process. "Having used the ladder for so long, it is not fair that they should kick the ladder off to the detriment of our countries".

In a similar vein, Ambassador Vijay Markham, Interim African Union Commissioner, cautioned that while trade is important Ministers need to beware of those who sing the praise and play the tune of unbridles trade liberalisation. He reminded them of the case of the former UK trade minister, Stephen Byers who, while in government promoted trade liberalisation as panacea to problems of development, only to confess once outside government, that his optimism had not been borne out in practice. Markham argued that a "conducive international trading environment is as important, if not more important, than efforts at national level to make trade an effective instrument for development". This requires action on the imbalances and inequities of the international trading system, such as the persistent deterioration in the terms of trade for primary commodities, tariff peaks and escalation, the asymmetry in the treatment of capital and labour in the area of services, as well agricultural subsidies in developed countries which are daily destroying the livelihood of African farmers.

Referring to the failures in the Doha agenda to address these problems, Markham said that this created a situation where "once again pressure will be brought to bear on us to compromise on our stand so that Cancun can be a success. This cannot and should not be allowed to happen."

On her part, Adelaide Mkhonza, Assistant Secretary-General of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries stated that the glimmer of hope contained in the Doha development agenda for ACP and other developing countries to rebalance the rules of the WTO has been undermined by a stalled process. The missed deadlines are set to over-load and stretch the agenda to the detriment of countries with limited resources. The African Union provided a foundation of collective action of African countries, together with other countries of the ACP group, for the necessary action to redress these imbalances.

African civil society organisations, who for the first time were allowed to meet under the auspices of the conference and to address the Ministers, underscored their support for the collective effort of the Ministers for international trade rules which reflected the needs and interests of the people of Africa.

In their statement, presented on their behalf by Jane Ocaya-Irama of Uganda, the civil society organisations called on the Ministers to focus on addressing the inequities of the existing agreements of the WTO, and reject any attempt to launch negotiations on the Singapore issues in Cancun. They made detailed recommendations for redress of imbalances in areas such agriculture, TRIPS, services, S&D.

In addition they drew attention to the undemocratic, and untransparent processes of the WTO, and called for the elimination of such abusive practices such as exclusive informal meeting, mini-ministerials, and such other untransparent devices as "friends of the chair". Aware of the pressures by developed countries to derail African countries from their concerns in the trade negotiations, they pledged to work with ministers as they strive for rules and agreements which will serve the interest of African women and men.

The very presence of civil society organisations formally at the gathering of Ministers and the fact that they addressed their concerns directly to the Ministers was a welcome precedence for AU. But while the civil society organisations lend support to the Ministers, it was clear that their demands were stronger, and went far beyond what the Ministers were able to adopt in their Declarations.

According to Thomas Deve of MWENGO from Zimbabwe, this gap between civil society demands and the Ministers' positions sets a mark for judging how far the Ministers will go in the coming months to hold up to their collective positions in the face of pressure. It also outlines the tasks ahead of civil society groups in Africa and beyond to ensure that Ministers live up to their commitments to Africa.