In contrast to the troubles that marked the December 1999 meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Seattle, African and other developing countries enjoyed a more amenable atmosphere for discussions with industrialized countries and international agencies during the tenth global meeting of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD X), held in Bangkok from 12 to 19 February.
The first major UN conference of the new millennium, the Bangkok meeting came after the spectacular collapse in Seattle in December 1999 of the WTO's effort to launch a new round of global trade negotiations. The Seattle meeting foundered on trade disputes between developed countries and demands by developing countries for greater transparency. "After Seattle we desperately need a 'world parliament on globalization,'" said UNCTAD Secretary-General Rubens Ricupero. "Bangkok is the best opportunity at hand for that purpose."
Cocoa beans for export: Africa's share of world trade is just 2.1 per cent.
Photo: Ghana Information Services
Department
UNCTAD is uniquely suited for open debate, he explained, because the organization, unlike the WTO, does not set rules on trade or investment, has no enforcement authority and does not resolve disputes involving the national interests of its members. This affords governments the opportunity to discuss the issues that have deadlocked the WTO in "a more relaxed and congenial atmosphere" free from the pressure of negotiating binding agreements. The 52-page plan of action adopted at UNCTAD X is not intended to form the basis for a future round of talks at the WTO. It serves instead as a sort of compendium of current debates on global trade, finance, debt and investment issues.
Addressing the opening plenary, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan defended trade liberalization in principle, but questioned its practice. "Is globalization an enemy of development, in this broad sense? Surely not....The main losers in today's very unequal world are not those who are too much exposed to globalization. They are those who have been left out....It is that exclusion," he told delegates, "which should be of particular concern to the conference."
Mr. Annan's concerns were strongly echoed by the departing head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Mr. Michel Camdessus. In a speech delivered one day before his retirement, Mr. Camdessus decried the widening gap between rich and poor countries as "economically wasteful" and "socially explosive." He called donor fatigue a "poor excuse" for falling aid levels and asserted that the US-led establishment of a "Group of 20" countries for consultation on international financial questions does not sufficiently accommodate the views of developing countries.
Listening to the speech were many of the most ardent government
and non-governmental critics of the IMF's structural adjustment
policies in Africa in the 1980s and 1990s and of its handling
of the Asian financial crises in 1997-98. The reactions to Mr.
Camdessus were varied. Just before he got to the podium to make
his speech, a US political activist thrust a pie in his face.
Several people observed that the policy directions indicated in
the speech should have been voiced earlier in Mr. Camdessus' tenure.
The least developed countries face tariff barriers to their processed exports such as textiles.
Photo: UN
No region has been as marginalized in the world economy as sub-Saharan Africa, which has seen its share of world trade slip to just 2.1 per cent in 1998, and where, according to the World Bank, the number of people living on less than a dollar a day rose from 220 million in 1987 to 290 million a decade later. In his address at Bangkok, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, speaking as the President of the Organization of African Unity, painted a bleak picture of Africa's economic prospects: "A new map of the world is being drawn up, and an entire continent -- Africa -- is purely and simply being rubbed out."
Instructed by his own intergovernmental board to patch up strong differences evident in Seattle between the industrialized and developing countries, WTO Director-General Mike Moore arrived in Bangkok with a four-part package of proposals designed to assuage the South. He told the conference that development is a major concern of the WTO's post-Seattle work programme. He called for duty- and quota-free access to Northern markets for all exports from the world's 48 least developed countries (LDCs) -- 33 of which are African. He urged industrialized countries to fund technical assistance to help developing countries implement agreements made in the Uruguay Round of trade talks, which concluded in 1995 with the formation of the WTO. The current WTO technical assistance budget is less than $1 mn.
The third element of the package provides for an extension of transition periods to enable developing countries to implement the liberalized trade measures contained in the Uruguay Round rules governing world trade. Many of these "special and preferential" provisions expired in December 1999 and probably would have been extended in Seattle if not for the failure of the talks. Finally, Mr. Moore pledged greater transparency in WTO operations.
In the event, cautious industrialized country delegations to UNCTAD X would only go as far as to agree in the plan of action to a "possible commitment" to free access for "essentially all" exports from the LDCs. European delegates explained that "essentially all" was meant to refer to 99 per cent of LDC products, while cynics noted that the missing 1 per cent inevitably would include exports from strategically important sectors such as textiles and agriculture that are sheltered from competition by powerful domestic constituencies.
This tentative commitment was made in a forum to which neither the European Union nor the US sent senior trade officials. In remarks prepared for the conference, the head of the US delegation, Ambassador Harriet Babbit, Deputy Administrator of the US Agency for International Development, made clear US opposition to a strengthened UNCTAD role in international trade: "An operational role for UNCTAD in trade negotiations would involve a confusion of institutional roles and a diversion of limited resources for which UNCTAD is not the best-suited organization."
Even so, Moroccan foreign minister Mohamed Benaissa, speaking as chairman of the ministerial committee of the Group of 77 developing countries, applauded the final communiqué of the UNCTAD X conference, the Bangkok Declaration, as a significant rebound from Seattle. The declaration emphasized the importance of integrating the development needs of poor countries into global trade and finance policy.
Ethiopian trade minister Kassahun Ayele welcomed a reference in the plan of action to "possible harmful effects" on the export opportunities of developing countries of an estimated $350 bn in agricultural subsidies paid to farmers in developed countries. The current Ethiopian development strategy is "agriculture-led," Mr. Ayele said. But Ethiopian farmers competing for overseas markets have enough difficulty overcoming the lower transportation costs and superior technology of their European and North American rivals, without also having to beat subsidized prices.
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) maintained a vigorous presence in Bangkok, both in the streets and as participants in the proceedings. In contrast to Seattle, demonstrations were orderly, a function of the large-scale deployment of Thai security forces, integration of NGOs into the UNCTAD X programme and the longstanding working relationship between UNCTAD and civil society representatives.
A declaration adopted by some 120 NGOs after a 7-8 February caucus in Bangkok was harshly critical of the WTO, IMF, and the World Bank, and called for a greater UNCTAD role in the design and management of the world economy. The NGOs called for the creation of a new global mechanism accountable to civil society, for cancellation of the debt of developing countries and for the inclusion of labour standards in international trade agreements. The statement also challenged UNCTAD to abandon its support for trade liberalization as a mechanism for development. Instead of understanding its role as a champion of "the South" against "the North," the NGOs declared, "UNCTAD must see itself as representing the interests of marginalized people in both the North and the South."
'Africa cannot afford to stand back and watch'South African trade minister Alec Erwin spoke with Africa Recovery on 15 February at the Queen Sirikit Conference Centre in Bangkok. Mr. Erwin was president of UNCTAD IX, held in his country in 1996. Does it look as if the LDCs finally will
be granted free market access for their exports? How is Africa faring at UNCTAD X? What are the possibilities for opening up
the WTO negotiations to greater African input? UNCTAD played a strong role in helping with preparations -- our country and UNCTAD co-hosted two continent-wide conferences and one regional. Up until the point of collapse in Seattle, developing countries had a much greater impact than in previous WTO talks, and good negotiating progress was being made. How do you assess the position of countries
-- many of them African -- that are reluctant to enter new trade
talks until the preceding Uruguay Round agreements are sorted
out, and commitments honoured? |
