1. WTO Australian Consultations begin: New Round Precarious
2. Indian government and Business Oppose new WTO issues (summarised from BUSINESS LINE May 3, 2001)
3. WTO Registration for NGOs for Qatar WTO Ministerial Conference
4. Sydney Events:
   a) Alternatives to Corporate Globalisation AID/WATCH Workshops Wed 16 May, Wed 20 June
   b) Privatisation: Sell Off or Sell Out? May 21, 6.30pm, State Parliament
   c) Friends of Tranby Aboriginal College Dinner , Sat May19, 6.30 pm

1. WTO Australian Consultations begin: New Round Precarious

AFTINET and other community organisations met with representatives of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on May 4 in Canberra in the first of a series of consultations to be held in capital cities before the WTO Ministerial Meeting in Qatar in November. AFTINET will advertise the dates for other cities as soon as they become available.

DFAT representatives reported that the agenda of the Ministerial Meeting will not be decided until July. The US, Europe and other industrialised country governments are still pressing for a new round of negotiations to include new issues like investment, competition policy and government procurement. Some developing countries like India are firmly opposed to new issues, and want to use the meeting to review existing agreements and implementation issues (see article below). Other developing countries like Egypt and South Africa are prepared to consider a limited agenda for some new issues provided implementation issues are also addressed. A compromise may be reached in July.

Unlike the UN, NGOs do not have formal observer status at the WTO and cannot attend meetings, but briefings may be provided. The Qatari government will provide only a limited number of visas and accommodation places for NGO attendance, and NGOs will have to register with the WTO in advance. NGOs have objected to this process as too restrictive . See Article 3 below about the registration process.

The Australian government supports a new round, with priorities on further liberalisation in agriculture, manufactured goods and services. They have not initiated, but would support, negotiations on investment and competition policy.

AFTINET and others put the view that issues of transparency, accountability and representation of developing countries raised at the Seattle meeting two years ago needed to be addressed in the WTO as a matter of urgency. They also argued for the need to ensure that WTO agreements were consistent with, and did not undermine, UN and ILO agreements on the environment, human rights and workers rights.

Union representatives argued for a joint WTO-ILO committee to examine the relationship between trade liberalisation and workers’ rights. Existing WTO agreements also needed to be reviewed as a priority before the expansion of WTO negotiations into new areas.

Community organisations also put specific views about particular agreements. They argued for food security measures for developing countries in the Agreement on Agriculture. On the Trade in Services Agreement, they argued against the weakening of governments’ right to regulate services, and for the clear exclusion of public services from the agreement. On intellectual property rights, they supported the right of developing countries to manufacture cheap generic drugs for the treatment of AIDS and other epidemics. Drug companies had sought to use the WTO Agreement on Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) to prevent this, but had been forced by global community opposition to drop their legal case against the South African government. They urged the government to oppose the similar complaint to the WTO disputes panel against Brazil by the US government on behalf of drug companies.

INDIA is firmly opposed to the expansion of multilateral negotiations to newer areas under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) framework despite growing pressure from some of the developed countries for a new round of trade negotiations.

"No prima facie case has been established on the necessity or relevance of the proposed new issues into WTO framework; nor has a case been made out to show that the developing countries are going to definitely benefit from negotiations in new areas," Mr Omar Abdullah, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, told members of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) here.

He said it was a well known fact that any new negotiations would definitely result in developing countries having to take on some more onerous obligations.

"We have to work hard to avert the pressure exerted by the developed countries for initiating a new round of negotiations," he said.

Mr Abdullah also pointed out that India has been taking a stand that the Ministerial conference at Doha should address the implementation-related concerns about existing WTO agreements and take stock of and give policy directions to the ongoing mandated negotiations in agriculture and services and other mandated reviews.

On the attempts to include international investment rules into the WTO agenda as a new issue, the Minister said India does not subscribe to the view that a multilateral framework on investment is either necessary or desirable.

"A multilateral agreement on investment is no guarantee for augmented inflow of foreign capital, but would curtail Government's policy options in using and directing foreign investment in accordance with the development priorities," he said.

At the same time, the Minister also stressed that the successful conduct of the Doha Ministerial Conference is very important for the strengthening of the multilateral trading system under the auspices of the WTO.

The FICCI President, Mr Chirayu Amin, said that FICCI firmly supports the Government's stance of opposing the launch of a new round at WTO.

The WTO has announced the NGO registration process for the November Ministerial. The number of NGOs allowed to participate will be limited. There is an international campaign to get many organisations to register, to protest against this limitation on participation. Here is the information from the WTO website:

'As Non-Governmental Organizations need to prepare for their attendance at the fourth Ministerial Conference of the WTO to be held in Doha from 9 to 13 November 2001, WTO Members have agreed on 8 May 2001 to renew the same procedures for registration adopted for the previous Ministerial Conferences held in Singapore (December 1996), Geneva (May 1998) and Seattle (December 1999).

Applications from NGOs to be registered will be accepted on the basis of Article V, paragraph 2 of the WTO Agreement, i.e. such NGOs "concerned with matters related to those of the WTO". When filing their request for registration to attend the Doha Ministerial Conference, NGOs must supply in detail all necessary information showing how they are concerned with matters related to those of the WTO. In addition, it would be appreciated if NGOs would provide more general information on the institutional structure of their organization, pertaining to such matters as national, regional and international representation, number of staff, membership and financial statements. Finally, it is important to indicate whether your organization has been registered at previous WTO Ministerial Meetings. Requests for registration accompanied by the information requested above, should be sent either by mail to:

External Relations Division
Centre William Rappard
154, rue de Lausanne
1211 Geneva 21
Switzerland
Email: NGOregistration@wto.org

Registration requests must be received by 2 July 2001. Requests for registration received after that date will not be processed.

Confirmation of your organization's eligibility to register will be sent, together with the individual registration forms, as from 1 August 2001, after the list of NGOs having requested registration has been circulated to WTO Members.

In light of the expected interest among NGOs in attending the Doha Ministerial Conference, certain limits may have to be placed on the number of representatives per NGO delegation.

Further information, including the procedures for reservation of hotel accommodation and visa application, will be provided in the letter confirming registration eligibility.

Once individual registration forms have been sent, these should be returned to the above address as soon as possible and in any case not later than 17 September 2001.

Please note that:

• All forms are numbered and cannot be copied; only authentic and duly signed originals will be accepted;

• Incomplete forms will not be accepted; all information requested has to be provided, including recent passport size photographs.

As from 1 October 2001, NGOs will receive confirmation of registration. On that basis, badges will be made available in Doha which allow access to all official Ministerial related venues.'

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Mon May 21, 6.30pm, $10 entry fee, State Parliament Theatrette
Prof Bob Walker & Betty Con Walker (Authors of Privatisation : Sell Off or Sell Out ?)
Dr Patricia Ranald, Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network on The WTO, Trade in Services and Privatisation, Prof Frank Stilwell, Sydney University
Organised By : Economic Reform Australia & People’s Movement for Economic Justice
Supported By : Australian Conservation Foundation, Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies/Sydney University, Social Responsibility and Justice Network/Uniting Church of Australia, Catholic Coalition for Justice and Peace, The Australian Democrats, The Greens, Progressive Labor Party, Friends of the Earth, AID/Watch, Gestalt Institute of Australia, Australian Coalition for Economic Justice, Grail, Stop Privatisation Campaign.
For information please contact Frances or Bruce Milne, Ph : 9810-7812 milne@itlite.com.au

There are still a few places available for this dinner on May 19, 6.30 pm, NSW Leagues Club, 165 Phillip St, Sydney, $40 per head.
The keynote speaker is Judge Bob Bellear, the first Aboriginal Judge appointed to the Bench.
The Band is the Riverside Band.

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