[g8-sheffield] Declaration of African civil society on the road to 6th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation in Hong Kong

[Chris Malins]

thought this might be of interest

Declaration of African civil society on the road to 6th Ministerial 
Conference of the World Trade Organisation in Hong Kong



**pour lire la declaration en français, cliquez-ici


 From the 16-19 of August, 2005, organisations of civil society from 
across Africa, comprising trade unions, farmers organisations, women’s 
organisations, faith-based organisations and non-governmental 
organisations, met in Accra under the umbrella of the Africa Trade 
Network to deliberate upon the challenges posed to African countries in 
the on-going negotiations at the WTO, particularly in the preparations 
for the December Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong. We adopted the 
following conclusions and demands.

We affirm as primary our right to pursue autonomously determined 
policies for the development of our economies, and to fulfil the social 
and human rights and livelihood needs of our people. Over the past two 
decades, this right has been severely undermined by external agencies 
like the World Bank and IMF. The policies of economic liberalisation and 
deregulation imposed by these agencies has led to serious economic 
collapse and social and environmental stress. An attempt is being made 
to continue this process in even more severe forms in the WTO.

It is four years since the launch of the WTO much-touted Doha 
“development” agenda. In that period there has been no progress in 
tackling the developmental concerns of African and other developing 
countries which were proclaimed as pivotal to the success of the Doha 
agenda. The powerful members of the WTO have frustrated all attempts at 
redressing the fundamental imbalances of the WTO regime which have 
contributed to wreak havoc upon African and other developing country 
economies and their people. Instead they have persisted with their 
attempts to impose the needs of their own economies and corporate 
interests on the rest of the world.

Two years after the resistance of developing country governments to this 
situation, culminated in the dramatic collapse of the 5^th Ministerial 
Conference in Cancun, the arrongance and double-standards of the 
powerful still remains the characteristic pattern of the WTO 
negotiations. As is evident from their proposals, the rich and powerful 
industrialised countries of the WTO continue to pressurise African and 
other developing countries to undertake further and deeper 
liberalisation commitments in their industrial, agricultural and 
services sectors, and lock them permanently into the system. At the same 
time, the developed countries remain intent on maintaining their 
advantages and protection.

As the Hong-Kong Ministerial approaches, these countries are set to come 
under even more intense pressures, and will be subject even more 
intensely to the manipulative, untransparent and undemocratic methods 
always employed by the developed countries to get their way.

We reject these attempts to undermine the policy autonomy of our 
countries, and cause further calamity to our economic development, and 
the fulfilment of our social rights. In furtherance of this, we state 
the following.

*Non Agricultural Market Access (NAMA)*

Africa’s industries have been devastated by two decades of World 
Bank/IMF imposed policies of trade liberalisation. Negotiations in NAMA 
will make this worse if the developed countries succeed in imposing 
drastic reductions in tariffs, as well as the restrictions of the levels 
to which African and other developing countries can in future raise 
tariffs. This will remove tariff policy as an important tool of 
industrial development, at a time when many other policy tools have 
already been removed under the agreements in the WTO.
We therefore demand that African countries should not accept and they 
must not be pressured into accepting the proposals on tariff being 
promoted by the advanced industrial countries. Instead they must be 
allowed to determine the definition and employment of tariff instruments 
and related policies.

*Agriculture*

Agriculture is central to the food security, rural development and 
livelihood needs in African countries. In the on-going negotiations 
African and other developing countries face the danger of being forced 
to open their markets to agricultural exports from the developed 
countries while the latter continue to protect theirs. Worse, the 
African and other developing countries will be exposed to the unfair 
subsidies of the developed countries, with artificially cheapened 
products being dumped in their markets, their own farmers displaced, and 
their livelihoods disrupted.

We demand that African countries must not undertake any further 
reduction in their tariffs for agricultural products; and they must also 
not bind their tariffs at current levels. In addition, they must have 
the right to use measures to further strengthen their ability to protect 
their domestic producers as they judge necessary, including the special 
safeguard mechanism and the right to desginate special products.. At the 
same time, the developed countries must eliminate all their subsidies 
which enable them to dump artificially cheap products in our markets and 
in global markets, and devastate our economies.

Services

Services are crucial for our economic development. In addition, 
services, especially essential services like health, education, water, 
are fundamental rights, the access to which must be guaranteed to all.
IMF and World Banks imposed policies of liberalisation and deregulation 
have already transformed some of these essential services into 
operations for profit, and taken them out of the reach of the vast 
majority of the citizens in African countries. At the same time, 
deregulation and liberalisation have placed services in the hands of 
private mainly foreign, providers, and have made them subject to 
externally driven economic considerations, thereby undermining their 
role in the development of an integrated domestic economy.

The developed countries seek to further entrench this process by 
pressurising African and other developing countries to open up more 
services sectors, and commit these under the General Agreement on Trade 
in Services.

We call on our governments not to accede to the request of the developed 
countries for further liberalisation; and furthermore, not be coerced 
into committing their existing liberalisation undertaken under IMF/World 
Bank pressure, as this will entrench them in the WTO and make them 
irreversible.

*S&D, and Implementation Issues*

The proposals by African and other developing countries to strengthen 
their right to special and differential treatment within WTO rules, as 
well as to resolve the problems of implementation with the existing 
agreements have been effectively marginalised. These issues are on the 
verge of disappearing from the Doha work programme. We demand the 
re-instatement of these essential development issues to the fore-front 
of the WTO negotiations.


*EPA negotiations, and WTO compatibility*

The developed countries, particularly the US and EU, have resorted to 
bilateral and regional trade agreements with other developing countries 
to attain the objectives that they have not been able to attain in the 
WTO. In the context of the EPA negotiations, the European Union is 
attempting to impose the so-called Singapore issues on African 
countries, and to get these countries to grant market access to European 
goods and services far beyond the WTO requirements, and undermine 
Africa’s economies and their efforts at regional integration.

We endorse the position of the Africa Ministers of Trade in Cairo in 
relations to the EPA negotiations. In the context of the WTO 
negotiations, we support the demand for the amendment of Article XXIV of 
the GATT to remove the reciprocity requirements in trade agremements 
between developed and developing countries members, including between 
African countries and the EU.

*Process*

African countries are further disadvantaged in the on-going negotiations 
by the untransparent and undemocratic methods and processes being used, 
such as mini-ministerial meetings and meetings of small-groups of 
countries, from which African countries are excluded. These methods and 
processes have intensified and will continue to intensify as the 
developed countries attempt to resolve controversial issues in their 
favour ahead of Hong Kong. We call on African governments to reject the 
outcomes of any meetings in which they have not participated. We demand 
that the processes of the WTO must be made democratic, transparent, 
inclusive and accountable.

Furthermore, in view of the persistent attempts by the major powers to 
divide African and other developing countries and undermine their unity, 
we urge our governments to strengthen their unity in the spirit of 
Cancun, and build upon their existing alliances.

Above all, we call on our governments to ensure that their national 
positions and mandates for the Hong Kong ministerial are elaborated 
through national debates and discussions with the participation of 
people’s organisations, as well as national parliaments

We call on all civil society and people’s organisation to be firm in 
their demands on our governments to protect and promote the interests of 
all people at all times and at all costs.

the Declaration that was adopted on 19th August is already being 
circulated by various networks and organizations and hope that it 
continues. We would ask however that you include contact details of the 
ATN Secretariat which is: Tetteh Hormeku --
politicaleconomy at twnafrica.org for networking purposes around ATN’s 
positions and related campaigns