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AFTINET Bulletin No. 139
August 2007
If you
would like to contribute to the Bulletin, please contact us at campaign@aftinet.org.au
or Phone (02) 9212 7242 Fax (02) 9211 1407
Previous AFTINET
Bulletins and resources are available at www.aftinet.org.au.
Contents:
1. Alternative
APEC public forum and Conference August 31 and September 1
2.
Sydney Peoples Alternative Rally and Festival
3.
Chinese Labour Activist Tour a success
4.
Free Trade Agreement Update
5.
US:
Democrats take aim at China in US presidential debate
6. Doha
is dead, time to rethink a new model of trade
1. Alternative
APEC public forum and Conference August 31 and September 1
AFTINET is
sponsoring the Asia Pacific People for Environment and Community alternative APEC events
in Sydney. Please note the venue change for the Public Forum, both events will now be held
at Guthrie Theatre, UTS, Design Building (Building 6), Harris Street , near the overhead footbridge. Harris St is off George St,
near Railway Square and Central Station.
Entry to both events is
by donation and registration can be done on our website www.aftinet.org.au
or by calling the AFTINET office.
Public Forum
Friday 31st
of August
5.30pm for 6.30pm start
Speakers at the
Public Forum include:
Lori Wallach (US – trade lawyer and director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch)
Sharan
Burrow (Australia – President of the Australian
Council of Trade Unions and the Global Unions’ International Trade Union
Confederation)
Yuri
Munsayac (The Philippines – Asia Pacific for
Human Development)
Don Henry (Australia – Executive Director, Australian
Conservation Foundation)
MC is Tim
Brunero (Australia – Former Big Brother
Contestant and writer)
5pm –
Launch of new 45 minute documentary “Constructing Fear” about the impact on
workers of the Howard Governments Building and Construction Industry Commission.
Community Conference
1st
September
9.30am
Join a
diverse range of leading thinkers, inspiring activists and community groups for
presentations, workshops and exhibitions on the impacts of the APEC agenda on climate
change, labour rights and human rights.
Speakers
at the Conference include:
John Sutton (Australia - National Secretary, CFMEU)
Kelly Dent (Australia - Labour rights campaigner, Oxfam)
Professor
Jane Kelsey (New Zealand – University of Auckland
and Action Resource Education Network of Aotearoa)
Elmer Labog (Philippines – Chairperson of the Kilusang Mayo Uno/May
First Movement Labor Centre)
Dave Sweeney
(Nuclear Campaigner - Australian Conservation
Foundation)
Workshop sessions at the Conference include:
Palms Australia
(Working cross culturally)
Venezuela
Solidarity Network (The Bolivarian Alternative for
the Americas as a model for APEC)
Forum for
Peace, Human Rights and the Environment (What are
the problems with the Japan FTA for Asian and Pacific People?)
FairWear (International campaigning on labour rights and
clothing industries)
Australian
Manufacturing Workers Union (labour rights in the
region)
APHEDA and
AidWatch (Aiding or abetting)
Global Trade
Watch (Documentary APEC and trade liberalisation in
the Asia Pacific)
TEAR Australia
(Make Globalisation History)
Sydney
Nuclear Free Coalition (Keep it in the ground)
Sydney
Friends of the Earth (Dissent and the good
protestor)
Climate
Action Network Australia (International Action on
Climate Change: a fair plan to ensure a safe climate)
Lee Rhiannon
(Coal, climate change and climate refugees in the
global economy)
Jubilee Australia
(Under the Influence: How International Financial
Institutions fund deforestation in SE Asia)
Engage Media
(Online video as a tool for social change)
Migrante
– Philippines Australia (Militarism, democracy
and peoples movement in Asia and Oceania)
Asia Pacific
Network on Food Sovereignty (APEC, WTO and bilateral
free trade agreements: implications of food sovereignty in Asia Pacific)
Food Not
Bombs (Resisting trade agreements favouring
corporations while increasing poverty and hunger)
Top of page
2. Sydney Peoples Alternative Rally and
Festival Friday, September 7 in Hyde Park North from 11am
All People for Environment
& Community
Many thousands of people in Sydney do not welcome
the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in our city. Their alternative view
will be expressed at a colourful festival to be held on Friday, September
7 in Hyde Park North from 11am to 2pm.
All People
for Environment and Community, a wide coalition of communitym groups
have come together to organise the Peoples’ Alternative Festival. The
Festival will promote the people’s alternative of fair trade, real action on
global warming, genuine development to alleviate poverty, opposition to war, and respect
for the labour rights and human rights of all the peoples of our vast Asia Pacific region.
Music, performance, speakers, information and food
stalls will combine to offer an inclusive peaceful people’s vision for the future, in
stark contrast to the secretive, big business agenda of the 21 APEC leaders behind their
concrete barricades.
Bands include: Men from UNCLE; Bolivarian Band and Korean
drummers.
Organised
by: All People for Environment & Community: Anti-Bases
Campaign;Sydney Peace & Justice Coalition; Migrante Philippines Australia; Bolivarian
Circle; Chilean Socialist Party / Oceania; Construction Forestry Mining & Energy
Union; Australian Services Union; Maritime Union of Australia (Sydney Branch); SEARCH
Foundation; Korean Resource Centre; Communist Party of Australia; Inner-West Your Rights
at Work; Aust Fair Trade & Investment Network. Contact: Peter Murphy 0418 312
301. Jane Brock 0410 453 459.
Email:
pmurphy@search.org.au
ALL WELCOME!
Top of page
3.
Chinese
labour activist tour a success
Chinese
labour rights activist Monina Wong visited Australia from 23rd until the 27th
July. AFTINET organised public meetings in Sydney and Melbourne involving Monina, Amnesty,
FairWear and the AMWU with more than one hundred people attending in both cities. Monina
conducted media interviews with SBS, Radio National, ABC Asia Pacific, 3CR, Life Matters,
National Radio News and the Sydney Morning Herald. Monina
also met with politicians including Lynn Allison, (Australian Democrats) Penny Sharpe
(ALP) and The Greens and gave a presentation to AMWU members, so had a very eventful
and productive week in Australia. Monina also visited three factories in Melbourne.
The Life
Matters interview can be heard: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/lifematters/stories/2007/1991347.htm
Top of page
4. New Free Trade Agreements Update
Indonesia
Australia and Indonesia have agreed to undertake a joint
feasibility study into the merits of an FTA between the two countries. This study will
commence this month and be completed by mid 2008. Indonesia is our 13th largest
trading partner.
Korea
Australia and South Koriea have agreed to start
a feasibility study for an FTA.
Gulf
Cooperation Council
DFAT
announced in late July that formal negotiations have begun for a FTA with the GCC to be
completed in 2008. The GCC is made up of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and
the United Arab Emirates. The GCC is our 10th largest trading partner and is of
particular importance to our automotive industries. Australia
has dropped “services” from the agenda of this FTA in a bid to gain access for
auto exports.
Chile
Australia has also decided to proceed with a
comprehensive and ambitious FTA with Chile with no meetings announced as yet. Australian
horticultural producers have responded that such an agreement could cost them $600
million, more than Australia’s entire trade with Chile which only totals $574
million. DFAT announced on December 8 last year that our government had agreed to start
negotiations before any consultation with industry had occurred.
Pacific Islands
As part of the PACER
(Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations) the Pacific Island countries are required
to offer consultations with a view to negotiations on free trade arrangements with Australia
and New Zealand because they have formally entered into substantive negotiations with the
EU. Consultations are expected to begin this
month in Vanuatu.
As reported in previous
bulletins, Australia is already negotiating FTAs with China, Malaysia and ASEAN, but
these negotiations are all proceeding very slowly.
Top of page
5.
US: Democrats take
aim at China in US presidential debate
Agence
France Presse, by Staff Wed 08 Aug 2007
CHICAGO, Aug 7 AFP - Democratic presidential candidates
fired a stinging round of attacks on China today, bemoaning "bad food" imports
and defective toys and accusing Beijing of manipulating the yuan.
It was the first sign of "China bashing" - a staple of past US campaigns - and
came as candidates debated before 15,000 labour-union members concerned about lost US blue-collar jobs and the impact of global free trade.
Top contenders also sparred about whether to unilaterally strike al-Qaeda in lawless
tribal areas of Pakistan and battled over the influence of corporate lobbyists in US
politics.
Front-runner Senator Hillary Clinton warned the United States must deal with China's
"currency manipulation" at the forum hosted by the AFL-CIO trade unions
federation.
"We have to have tougher standards on what they import into this country.
"I don't want to eat bad food from China or have my children having toys that are
going to get them sick," said Clinton, who according to a new USA-Today/Gallup poll
leads the Democratic field by 22 points.
The outdoor debate, on a humid night at a football stadium, was seen as an audition before
the mighty labour block, which partially bankrolls and gets out the vote in Democratic
campaigns.
Senator Barack Obama, second to Clinton in national polls five and a half months before
first party nominating contests, branded China a "competitor" but not
necessarily an enemy.
"If they're manipulating their currency ... we take them to the mat."
Bill Richardson, a long-shot candidate who is governor of New Mexico, warned China was a
"strategic competitor".
"We've got to say to China, you've got to stop fooling around with currency; you've
got to find ways to be more sensitive to your workers."
Former vice presidential candidate John Edwards brought up concerns over defective Chinese
imports, after US toys giant Fisher-Price recalled nearly a million Chinese-produced toys
over fears they might be toxic.
"We should have a Consumer Product Safety Commission that's not looking out for big
multinational corporations, but is actually looking out for the safety of our children
here in America."
Veteran Democratic Senator Joseph Biden lashed out at Bush administration loans from China
he said were used to fund the Iraq war.
"They hold the mortgage on our house. We're now in debt almost one trillion dollars
to China."
Obama rebuked rivals who mocked him as naive on foreign policy, defending his statement
last week that he would if necessary be prepared to order unilateral strikes against
al-Qaeda in lawless tribal areas in Pakistan.
"I find it amusing that those who helped to authorise and engineer the biggest
foreign policy disaster in our generation are now criticising me," he said.
"If we have actionable intelligence on al-Qaeda operatives, including (Osama) bin
Laden, and President (of Pakistan Pervez) Musharraf cannot act, then we should. Now, I
think that's just common sense," Obama said.
But Clinton replied, "I don't believe people running for president should engage in
hypotheticals."
"I think it is a very big mistake to telegraph that and to destabilise the Musharraf
regime which is fighting for its life against the Islamist extremists who are in bed with
al-Qaeda and (the) Taliban."
Obama spoke out against the Iraq war before the US invasion - though he was not a US
senator at the time.
Clinton, and fellow candidates Senator Joseph Biden, Senator Chris Dodd and former senator
John Edwards, were all on stage today and all voted to authorise the war.
Obama and Edwards both suggested that Clinton was in the pocket of corporate interests.
But she hit back: "For 15 years, I have stood up against the right-wing machine, and
I've come out stronger. "So if you want a
winner who knows how to take them on, I'm your girl."
Top
of page
6. TWN
Info Service on WTO and Trade Issues
26 July 2007
Third World
Network
www.twnside.org.sg
"Doha is dead", time to rethink a new model of trade
Over 90 civil
society organisations worldwide have sent a letter to their Trade Ministers, calling on
them to acknowledge the failure of the Doha Round and to institute a two-year moratorium
to provide the time and space necessary to rethink the model and process of global trade
negotiations.
The letter was sent
just as the Chairs of the agriculture and NAMA negotiations at the WTO issued their
revised draft modalities texts on 17 July.
"We believe
that the time has come to officially declare the Doha Round of the WTO negotiations dead
and to provide the necessary space to re-think the kind of multilateral trade rules that
are needed to create employment and achieve sustainable development," said the CSO
letter.
Below is a report
of the letter.
Martin Khor
TWN
---------------------
"Doha is dead", time to rethink a new
model of trade
By Kanaga Raja (SUNS), Geneva, 18 July 2007
Over ninety civil society organizations from all over the world
have sent a letter to their Trade Ministers, calling on them to acknowledge the failure of
the Doha Round and to institute a two-year moratorium to provide the time and space
necessary to rethink the model and process of global trade negotiations.
The call by the civil society groups came just as the Chairs of
the agriculture and non agricultural market access (NAMA) negotiations at the WTO issued
their revised draft modalities texts on 17 July.
"We believe that the time has come to officially declare
the Doha Round of the WTO negotiations dead and to provide the necessary space to re-think
the kind of multilateral trade rules that are needed to create employment and achieve
sustainable development," said the civil society groups in their letter to the Trade
Ministers.
A copy of the letter was also sent to WTO Director-General
Pascal Lamy, who is also the Chair of the Trade Negotiations Committee that oversees the Doha
negotiations, as well as the Chair of the agriculture negotiations, Ambassador Crawford
Falconer of New Zealand and the Chair of the NAMA negotiations, Ambassador Don Stephenson
of Canada.
Among the civil society groups that signed the letter were
ActionAid International; Asian Indigenous Women's Network; ATTAC (includes branches in
Austria, Hungary, Japan, Norway and Sweden); Consumers Association of Penang (Malaysia);
Corporate Europe Observatory; Council of Canadians; Focus on the Global South (Thailand,
India, Philippines); Friends of the Earth; IBON Foundation, Inc (Philippines); Institute
for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP); Public Citizen; Public Services International
(PSI); Tebtebba (Philippines); Sierra Club; The Berne Declaration; and Transnational
Institute (TNI).
In their letter to the Trade Ministers, the civil society groups
noted that it is now almost six years since the Doha Agenda was launched in November 2001.
What has followed since then is a litany of setbacks and/or
failures - from the collapse of the Cancun Ministerial in 2003, followed by the July
framework cobbled together in 2004, then the desperate moves of the 2005 Hong Kong
Ministerial to breathe new life into the Doha agenda, which led to the suspension of the
WTO negotiations in 2006 and now the recent breakdown of the G-4 (Brazil, India, EU and
US) talks in Potsdam.
"Doha was supposed to be the 'development' round. But what
has transpired over the intervening six years has been quite the opposite," said the
letter to Trade Ministers.
"Instead of coming up with a set of multilateral trade
rules designed to increase the capacities of developing countries to create new jobs,
eliminate poverty and build sustainable economies, the Doha Agenda has been manipulated to
primarily serve the interests of the northern industrialized powers to expand market
access for their transnational corporations."
The civil society groups said that all the studies that have
come out since 2005 - from the World Bank, UNCTAD, the Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO), the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Tufts University and the Research
and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) - demonstrate that the current
proposals for the Doha Agenda make developing countries, and particularly the poorest
countries, the biggest losers.
Millions of people all over the world, including farmers,
fisher-folk, workers and trade unionists, environmentalists, faith-based groups and other
civil society organizations, have been denouncing the Doha talks as promoting a
"corporate-driven" model of trade that pays little attention to peoples' rights
and needs.
"Now, more than ever, world leaders must face up to the
fact that the global trade regime has marginalised a vast array of communities and
interests who have finally united to stop any further expansion of the system," said
the letter.
The Doha Agenda and Model have failed to increase the trust of
WTO's membership, let alone the public it is supposed to serve, the civil society groups
said, adding that around the world, people have informed themselves and popular opinion
has changed to the point where the WTO is suffocating from a crisis of legitimacy.
And, no effort by free trade champions to "better
educate" the public or adopt "quick fixes" can reverse this reality.
"Declaring the death of Doha does not mean the end of [the]
world trading system." the letter stressed, pointing out that another multilateralism
is possible, but not one that prioritizes the rights of corporations over the rights of
people and the planet while reducing the power to self-govern.
The civil society groups urged the Trade Ministers to
acknowledge the failure of the Doha Round now and called on them to institute a two-year
moratorium to provide the time and space necessary to re-think the model and process of
global trade negotiations.
"It's time to go back home, and start a process of
reflection and consultation with your peoples that can pave the way for a new and
different model of multilateral trade."
"The only credible option now is to stimulate public
discussion and debate with governments and civil society and social movements about
creating alternative trade regimes that are people, development, and environment
centered," said the letter to Trade Ministers.
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