1. Events for the WTO Ministerial Meeting, September 10-14
2. Websites for the WTO Ministerial Meeting
3. Democracy and Developing Countries in the cold at WTO Ministerial Meeting
4. Flawed WTO drugs deal will do little to secure future access to medicines in developing countries (30 August 2003)
5. GATS call to Cancun: essential services like water out of the WTO: sign by Sept 4th

1. Events for the WTO Ministerial Meeting, September 10-14

Sydney events:

a) FAIR TRADE TO A PEACEFUL WORLD: How the WTO undermines peace: a public meeting making the connection between unjust trade and war

11 am, Saturday, 13th September, 2003
Pitt St Uniting Church, 264 Pitt St, Sydney

Chaired by Elizabeth Evatt AC

Speakers:

Father Brian Gore, Jubilee: Trade and Debt
Sally McManus, Australian Services Union: Workers, trade and peace
Rev. Dr Ann Wansbrough, Uniting Care: Trade in services
Dr Gillian Deakin, Medical Association for the Prevention of War: Fair access to medicines

Then at 1.00pm assemble on Town Hall steps for a short public statement.

For more information contact Louise Southalan at AFTINET on (02)9299 7833 or email: lsouthalan@piac.asn.au

b) Saturday 6th September, 1.00pm.

Aidwatch and ATTAC launch Aileen Kwa's book 'Inside the WTO'. Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe. Contact 9557 8944

c) THE ABC of the WTO: 6.00-9.00pm Tuesday 9th September, 19 Eve St, Erskineville, Sydney

ATTAC, Aidwatch and Greens Teach-in
Contact Tim O’Connor on 9557 8944

d) OXFAM Stop cotton dumping

When: Monday 8th September, 2003

Where: Archibald Fountain, Hyde Park, Sydney

Time: 10.00am

We will have a pinata in the form of a bale of cotton which, when broken open, will show the "goodies' that poor countries would obtain if they had fair access to rich country markets. Following the media event we will walk to the US consulate in Martin Place to present the consul general with a petition.

e) FIESTA FOR FREEDOM, Sydney

Saturday 13th September. Rally at 2.00pm, Town Hall steps, Sydney. Bring pots and pans, puppets, banners and costumes for Mexican "Day of the Dead' inspired march.

f) Melbourne events during the WTO Ministerial meeting

Friends of Earth Corporate Globalisation collective is bringing their giant puppet bum for all to join in a larger than life 'race to the bottom'!!. Come join in and bring your hessian sack or rope for 3 legged races.

1pm, Bourke St Mall cnr Bourke and Swanston St
More info: 9419 8700

5pm State Library - Swanston Street, city
Contact: cancun_vic@hotmail.com or 0422 352 448
6.30pm meet at Flinders St Station (or follow on from the fiesta) – Bring party games, music, fire stix, bean bags…
For more info contact: karrina.nolan@foe.org.au (03) 9419 8700 or 0403 920 195

Teach in ‘The War on the Poor: Militarism and Globalisation today’

Saturday 13^th at Green Building, 60 Leceister St Carlton, 12 - 5.30pm

For more info phone (03) 9659 3582, http://www.vicpeace.org

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Pat Ranald will be attending the NGO events organised for the WTO Ministerial Meeting as a representative of AFTINET.

Stay up to date with the latest news from Cancun by:

• Radio link with reports from Cancun www.realworldradio.fm

• Websites with daily updates on events from Cancun:Oxfam/CAA, Friends of the Earth and Food First

www.caa.org.au/cancun

www.foei.org/cancun see also their new publication on corporate influence in the WTO

www.foodfirst.org

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3. Democracy and Developing Countries in the cold at WTO Ministerial Meeting

Pat Ranald, AFTINET

Despite the last minute deal on access to medicines, the WTO remains in crisis because it has put corporate interests before the needs of developing countries on the key issues of agriculture, trade in services and proposals for an investment agreement

A WTO deal on access to medicines for developing countries was agreed last year but was blocked by the US under pressure from the pharmaceutical companies. The deal reached this week, only a week before the Mexico Ministerial Meeting, protects pharmaceutical companies' interests but creates more red tape for developing countries to get access to affordable medicines. Both Oxfam and Medicines sans Frontieres have criticised the WTO statement because it seeks to put additional conditions on access to imported generic drugs for developing countries (see below).

WTO agreements have forced developing countries to open their agricultural markets but the US and the EU have not reduced their subsidies to farmers. Their subsidised exports under cut local farm products, wiping out small farmers and increasing poverty levels in developing countries. The WTO has still not addressed this issue.

Developing countries are also resisting the expansion of the WTO Trade in Services Agreement. The proposals to reduce the rights of national and local governments to regulate and provide essential services like health education and water would reduce access to these services. This is unacceptable in Australia, and would be even more devastating in developing countries (see GATS statement below).

Given these problems with existing WTO agreements, developing countries are resisting proposals for new agreements which would expand WTO rules into areas like investment. An Investment agreement would remove the right of all governments to limit foreign investment in any area, and would prevent governments from requiring investors to contribute to local development by using local products or developing relationships with local firms. It would also empower corporations to challenge laws and sue governments. This echoes the infamous Multilateral Agreement on Investment, which was defeated by community campaigning in 1998.

77 of the poorest WTO member countries from Africa and the Caribbean called on the WTO in August to develop a more transparent and democratic process so that their voices could be heard, and rejected proposals for an investment agreement. See www.twnside.org.sg/title/twninfo54.htm

If the WTO truly reflected the wishes of member governments, investment would be off the agenda for the Mexico meeting and their proposals for solving the issues of concern to them would be on the agenda. Until these voices are heard, the WTO remains the captive of the strong.

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4. Flawed WTO drugs deal will do little to secure future access to medicines in developing countries

Media release
30 August 2003

The WTO agreement that is ostensibly intended to get drugs to the poorest countries does not provide a workable solution, according to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and Oxfam.

"Today’s deal was designed to offer comfort to the US and the Western pharmaceutical industry," said Ellen ’t Hoen of MSF. "Unfortunately, it offers little comfort for poor patients. Global patent rules will continue to drive up the price of medicines."

The original intention of the talks was to facilitate the supply of affordable generic drugs for developing countries. However, this agreement has thrown up new legal, economic, and political obstacles to ensuring production and export of generic medicines in the future. The statement that the US insisted on adds another layer of uncertainty that leaves developing countries vulnerable to pressure not to use the system.

"Today, countries can use compulsory licenses for import, because a supply of generic versions of many drugs is available somewhere on the world market," said Céline Charveriat of Oxfam. "What Members do not seem to take into account is that the burdensome system being put in place does nothing to ensure that generic production will happen in the future. Rather, developing countries will have little alternative to the high prices and long-term monopolies of brand-name pharmaceutical companies."

Yesterday, over twenty developing countries were voicing concerns about the text. Today, they have come under tremendous pressure to adopt it. However, this disappointing outcome must not prevent countries from immediately taking measures that are allowed under WTO patent rules in order to access affordable medicines and save lives.

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5. Call to Cancun: Halt the GATS negotiations. Take essential services, such as water, out of the WTO.

Civil Society Submission to the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) 5^th Ministerial Conference in Cancun, 10-14 September 2003 (Deadline September 4)

As trade ministers from the WTO’s 146 member countries meet in Cancun, we call on them to halt discussions on the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and to resist any contrary attempts which seek to speed up these negotiations. The United States and the European Union, whose corporations have most to gain from these talks, are pushing for a political declaration in Cancun calling on all WTO members to submit their services, including essential services, to the GATS. For these corporations, GATS promises access to new markets and enhanced rights. In Cancun, promises made by developed countries in other WTO areas will be used to extract progress on GATS, even though GATS is not a key agenda item. This puts immense pressure on developing countries to commit more of their services, including basic services such as water, to the WTO’s binding trade rules.

The GATS proponents repeatedly frame their ambitions in the context of development. They refer to the ‘Doha Development Agenda’. In water specifically, the EU publicly claims that current negotiations, ‘could potentially contribute to international efforts to improve access to water.’ Yet in confidential internal memos between the European Commission and the top three European water companies (Suez, Vivendi and RWE), the EC states that, ‘one of the main objectives in the current round of negotiations is to achieve real and meaningful access for European service providers for their exports of environmental services [which includes water services].’

In July 2002, as part of ongoing GATS negotiations, the EU submitted demands to 109 countries, requesting ambitious levels of market access for its corporations. This included requests to 72 countries, several of them least developed countries, requesting access to their water services. The US also submitted extensive and controversial demands, which under the guise of ‘transparency’ render domestic decision-making vulnerable to foreign commercial interests.

Developing countries have every reason to resist such far-reaching demands. So far, the liberalisation of water services has caused grave problems in countries where the involvement of foreign multinationals has typically made water more expensive than poor households can afford. Any country making GATS commitments in water would bind in such liberalisation for the future, making it effectively impossible for it to withdraw, even if service provision is unaffordable to the poor, the water service is of poor quality, or a future government wishes to change the policy.

The United Nations Sub-Commission on Human Rights, concerned with the effect of GATS on universal service obligations, suggests that GATS conflicts with the human rights obligations, of WTO member countries. Barely a year ago at the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, heads of the governments made commitments to halve the proportion of people without access to water and that of those without access to sanitation by 2015. But the evidence from many communities, especially those in the developing world, is that the global water crisis will worsen if water is subjected to WTO rules that put corporate interests ahead of the right to water as fundamental to life.

In order to make these obligations a reality we call on Ministers meeting in Cancun to halt the current GATS negotiations and keep essential services, such as water, out of the WTO.

Contact Char Greenwald at cgreenwald@iatp.org by September 4 to add your organisation to this call.

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