1. New AFTINET Publication and Visits to MPs
2. US Hypocrisy on Agricultural Protection
3. Next WTO Ministerial Meeting in Mexico September 2003 as developing countries criticise last Meeting Process
4. Help Make East Timor Debt Free: Letter to the Minister

1. New AFTINET Publication and Visits to MPs

Over 50 people attended the launch of The WTO Negotiations: The MAI Resurrected at NSW Parliament House on April 24. The publication explains the current WTO negotiations on Trade in Services (GATS) and on investment, competition policy and government procurement. These negotiations could lead to a reduction in the right of governments to regulate services, the privatisation of public services, and reductions in the right to regulate transnational investment. These were features of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), which was defeated in 1998 after community campaign exposed it to public debate. The publication explains the WTO process, how we can hold our government accountable and campaign against these outcomes, and for a trade framework which respects human rights and the environment.

Speakers at the launch included Julius Roe, President of the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union, the Rev Dr Ann Wansbrough, Uniting Church Minister, Dr Meredith Burgmann, President, Legislative Council of NSW, Senator John Cherry, Australian Democrats Spokesperson on Trade and Senator elect Kerry Nettle, Greens NSW.

See elsewhere on this web site to order copies of the publication and download letters to politicians.

The publication has been mailed to all Federal MPs and all local government councils in Australia. It has also gone to all state MPs in NS and to a range of national rural and farmers' organisations, women's organisations, environment, indigenous, unions and church groups. We have received bulk orders (several thousand) from a number of organisations.

We are now following up with visits to Federal politicians, then to state and local government.

In some states like Queensland, such visits began earlier in the year. This is a good way to raise the issue with politicians and to involve members of your organisation in the campaign.

2. US Hypocricy on Agricultural Protection

The US $333 billion farm subsidy bills passed this week join the US steel protection measures to show a clear trend. The bills make a mockery of commitments made at the World Trade Organisation Ministerial Meeting in November last year to reduce agricultural subsidies. Farmers' organisations in Australia have strongly criticised the subsidies, which will flood world markets with subsidised products which can undercut local products, with the most severe impacts in developing countries.

The US stance will make the WTO negotiations more difficult, as developing countries are unlikely to agree to further liberalisation of Trade in Services (GATS) or to new WTO agreements on Investment, competition policy and government procurement without reduction of agricultural subsidies in the US and Europe. This means there is a better chance of civil society campaigns having an impact on negotiations in these areas.

This also reinforces AFTINET's arguments that the government's attempts to negotiate a US Australia free trade agreement are like a mouse negotiating with an elephant. The US appears committed to free trade abroad only if it can have protectionism at home.

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3. Next WTO Ministerial Meeting in Mexico September 2003 as developing countries criticise last Meeting Process

The World Trade Organisation will hold its next ministerial conference in the Mexican city of Cancun from Sept. 10-14, 2003. The dates and the venue were proposed by Mexico, which was selected by the WTO General Council last December to host the WTO's fifth ministerial conference.

Meanwhile, at the recent WTO Council meeting, India and a large group of other developing countries have turned their criticisms of the Doha meeting process into a series of positive recommendations for the Mexico meeting. These include: (i) making all consultations transparent and open-ended; (ii) the draft ministerial declaration should be based on consensus, and where this is not possible, differences should be fully and appropriately reflected (i.e. through square brackets); (iii) the Director-General and the Secretariat should remain impartial on the specific issues in the declaration; (iv) chairpersons at Ministerial Conferences should be identified by consensus in the preparatory process in Geneva; consultations by chairs should be only at meetings open to all Members, with meetings announced "at least a few hours in advance"; (v) negotiating texts and draft decisions should be introduced only in open-ended meetings; and (vi) late night meetings and negotiating sessions should be avoided.

Many industrialised country governments and some developing country delegations responded negatively to the proposals. They said the provisions would impose too much of a "straight jacket" on the consultation process, with one trade source commenting that were the stricter consultation provisions in the paper adopted, it would drive the real negotiations underground and ultimately lead to a less transparent procedure (summarised from Bridges Trade Digest, Vol. 6, Number 18 15 May, 2002).

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4. Help Make East Timor Debt Free: Letter to the Minister

The new government of East Timor faces an estimated US$154 to $184 million shortfall in its already lean budget for the first three years of independence. After that, oil and gas revenue should help this tiny new country.

Please email Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer, urging him to make generous, condition-free grant pledges to assist East Timor.

Sample letter for Alexander Downer:

Minister for Foreign Affairs
The Hon Alexander Downer, MP

Email: minister.downer@dfat.gov.au
Fax: 02 6273 4112
Tel: 02 6277 7500

Dear Mr Downer,

East Timor will soon celebrate its first Independence Day on May 20. At this most critical time in its development, I am writing to ask you to support the world's newest nation as it faces an estimated U.S.$154 to $184 million budget shortfall over the first three years of independence.

The East Timorese are still in the early stages of rebuilding their devastated country following the 1999 Indonesian military-wrought destruction and simply cannot afford to start off their new nationhood in debt.

I urge you to support the most generous pledge of grants possible from Australia to cover East Timor's budget gap, with no conditions attached. I also urge you to work with others in the administration and abroad to make sure the entire gap is financed with condition-free grants. This support would be in line with recent international commitments to the global eradication of poverty and is a natural extension of the special and positive relationship established between Australia and East Timor.

I look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely

name
postal address (NB. Minister Downer needs this - his office will NOT reply by email)

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