Action Alert Letter - July 2008
Hon. Simon Crean
Minister for Trade
Parliament House
Canberra, ACT
WTO Mini-Ministerial Meeting: No deal better than a bad deal
Dear Minister,
The World Trade Organisation meeting this week comes at a critical point for global trading relations. This Doha round has taken seven years so far. These negotiations are drawn out because of a reluctance by industrialised countries to make offers that would truly live up to the so called ‘development' aspect of the round.
The current negotiations, labelled as ‘make or break', are taking place without 80% of the membership. The secretive ‘green room' process that is being undertaken lacks transparency and excludes many developing countries voices that are at the heart of the talks.
The new Lamy text must be rejected as it continues to undermine development by furthering the demands of industrialised countries.
The lack of US negotiating authority means that anything promised by the US negotiators may be undone by a Congress that has recently passed a Farm Bill that increases agricultural subsidies, something these talks were aimed at lowering.
This WTO round is falsely labelled a "Development Round." The real consequences of the current proposals would be:
No benefits - The World Bank has forecast that global gains would only equal $50 billion globally of which $16 billion would flow to developing countries. This is more than offset by a loss of $64 billion in tariff revenues.
Agriculture - Undermining the mechanisms that developing countries have to protect sensitive foods and strengthen food security. Given the current food crisis, developing countries must be able to adequately maintain food sovereignty
Manufactured Products - Under the current negotiations industrialised countries would have to reduce their tariff rate by an average of less than 30% while major developing countries would have to apply tariffs cuts that average around 60%. This violates the principle of "less than full reciprocity" that was to be a guiding principle of these negotiations and would undermine jobs and development.
Services - Restricting the regulatory space available to governments to ensure that services meet the public interest. Liberalisation of financial services would also exacerbate the current global financial sector crisis.
The Australian government should support a review of WTO rules and structures that can genuinely address the concerns of developing countries and develop rules and structures based on fairness, justice, development and environmental sustainability.
If the negotiations cannot satisfactorily address the concerns of the developing countries then the round must be rejected. No deal is better than a bad deal.
Regards,
