Contents:

1. Successful Seminar and Rally for WTO Sydney meeting
2. MSF and Oxfam criticise outcome of Sydney WTO meeting: deal on medicines "unworkable"
3. US-Australia Free Trade negotiations face wide range of critics
4. More good news on GATS: ALP, Democrats and Greens agree to support Senate Inquiry into GATS
5. More Councils and National Local Government Association Pass GATS Resolution

1. Successful Seminar and Rally for WTO Sydney meeting

These events were sponsored by 50 community organisations including churches, unions, environment groups and human rights groups, many of which are members of AFTINET.

120 people from a wide variety of community and union organisations attended the Seminar on Alternatives to the WTO Policy Agenda on Sunday 10 November.

The agenda featured speakers from the South including Aileen Kwa, Focus on the Global South, Geneva; Nur Hidayat, Institute of Global Justice, Indonesia; Joy Chavez from Focus in the Philippines and Jesus Gonzalez, Trade Union Congress of Columbia. Aileen Kwa launched her publication Power and Politics in the WTO. Other speakers were from AFTINET, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, The Manufacturing Workers Union, The Australian Union of Students, Oxfam, Doctors without Borders, Oxfam, AID/WATCH and other community organisations. Media included ABC Radio National, SBS Radio and AAP, who were especially interested in the overseas speakers.

Papers from the seminar will be placed on the AFTINET Website as we receive them from speakers.

A successful Rally was held on November 14 at 12 noon in Hyde Park, Sydney. Although the police had refused to issue permits for marches, about 1000 people, mainly students, marched through the city to the rally. The march was largely peaceful, although there were some arrests and a woman journalist was crushed by a police horse but thankfully not seriously injured. The media coverage as usual focussed on the arrests.

The Rally was attended by several thousand people , was peaceful and heard music and speakers from unions, church, environment and community groups who argued for alternatives to WTO policies. We managed to get some articles and interviews debating the issues about the WTO in the Sydney Morning Herald, ABC Radio National and some commercial radio, including a debate with Alan Oxley on the ABC Radio National PM program on Thursday.

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2. MSF and Oxfam criticise outcome of Sydney WTO meeting: deal on medicines "unworkable"

Oxfam and MSF have claimed that the change to WTO patent rules proposed by the Sydney meeting which supposedly allows poor countries to import cheap generic medicines could be unworkable in practice. "This is a setback in the fight to put public health before corporate profit, but the battle is not over," said Jeff Atkinson, a spokesperson for Oxfam International.

The major problem is that the country supplying cheap generic copies of drugs needed to combat AIDS, TB and any other disease, would have to agree to override the relevant patent. This makes the needy importing country unacceptably dependent on the political will of another government, and increases the administrative burden. Potential suppliers would also be under enormous pressure from industrialised countries such as the US and EU not to help out.

If this proposal is accepted by the wider WTO membership, an insurmountable barrier to getting cheaper medicines is replaced by numerous lower ones, argue the international aid agencies Oxfam and Medecins Sans Frontieres. But this 25-nation summit is informal - the real decision will be taken by all 144 WTO member states over the coming month in Geneva.

"The irony is that while developing-country delegates in Sydney have been pressurised to back down, world opinion is swinging in their favour," says spokesperson for Medecins Sans Frontieres Kathryn Dinh. "The proposition from the European Commission that won the day in Sydney has been unravelling at home, with the French,Belgium, Dutch and European Parliaments supporting the proposals favoured by many developing countries. And leading US newspapers are now vocal critics of US policy on this issue."

"Many people in the Third World and aid agencies such as Oxfam and Medecins Sans Frontieres were hoping that Sydney would act in the spirit of WTO commitments made at Doha. As it is, they have been disappointed to see their trade ministers pressurised by powerful countries into accepting a political fudge in a behind-closed-doors meeting, without their patent experts present," said Mr Atkinson, "but the needs of millions of sick and needy people will not be set aside so easily".

It is significant that the there was no announcement about the other main issue which was due to be discussed at the meeting: a better deal on agriculture for developing countries.

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3. US-Australia Free Trade negotiations face wide range of critics

The Australian government used the Sydney WTO meeting to announce that negotiations on a US Australia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) will start in February next year. Some trade commentators have noted that these bilateral negotiations were trumpeted louder than the results of the informal WTO meeting, perhaps because the outcomes of the WTO meeting were less than expected.

The proposed FTA has met with widespread criticism from community groups including AFTINET because of the unequal bargaining situation for Australia in economic terms: we are a mouse bargaining with an elephant. The US has targeted important Australian social policies as barriers to trade. The US wants abolition of the Foreign Investment Review Board, an end to Australian content rules in film and television, the abolition of the pharmaceutical benefits scheme and reductions in quarantine standards. The National Farmers' Federation has criticised this agenda and said that they are doubtful that any gains would be made in access to US agricultural markets. All the Opposition Parties, including the Australian Labor Party, have also been strongly critical of the proposed agreement.

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4. More good news on GATS: ALP, Democrats and Greens agree to support Senate Inquiry into GATS

Following the change on GATS Policy by the ALP outlined in the last Bulletin, the ALP announced this week that it would support a Senate Inquiry into the GATS.

This means that all Opposition parties, ALP Democrats and Greens now have policies critical of GATS, calling for all the requests and offers in the GATS negotiations to be made public, and supporting a Senate Inquiry into GATS.

The terms of reference of the Inquiry have not yet been decided but will include points raised by AFTINET. The inquiry will probably be held from February next year, which should result in some publicity around the deadline of March 31 for government responses to GATS requests.

On November 13 the Senate passed a resolution supported by all the Opposition parties calling for requests and offers in the GATS negotiations to be made public, which was reinforced by a formal request to the government to table these documents on November 15. On November 18 the government refused to table them.

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5. More Councils and National Local Government Association Pass GATS Resolution

Yarra and Port Philip Councils in Victoria have now passed the GATS local government resolutions, making four in Victoria and three in NSW, plus the NSW Local Government Association Conference. The resolutions were initially raised by Green Councillors, but have been supported by independents and ALP Councillors.

The National Local Government Association Conference has also passed the resolution, which should bring it to the attention of many more Councils. This means that all of those bodies have not only debated it themselves, but have written to the Federal Trade Minister raising their concerns and demanding consultation. The resolution can be found here (Bulletin No 43).

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