Imposition of a new WTO round

(Dr. Vandana Shiva, Research Foundation for Science, Ecology and Technology, New Delhi writes:)

The Draft Decision on Implementation Related Issues and Concerns and the Draft Ministerial Declaration for the Doha meeting of WTO released at the recent General Council Meeting in Geneva once more prove that WTO continues to be an undemocratic, non- transparent, anti-South and anti-people organisation.

The Draft Declaration has assumed a new round at Doha and has included new issues such as investment, competition policy, Government procurement etc., even though most countries of the South have made it clear that they do not want a new round and first want to focus on implementation-related issues. While the language for new issues is ``we agree to negotiate'', the language for implementation is ``we agree to examine'', ``we agree to take into account''. The agenda of the North comes with binding commitments, the proposals from the South hang on vague lip service to ``examine''. This is one more attempt to marginalise the South and issues of concern to the poor, and impose the agenda of the rich and powerful.

The governments of India, Pakistan, and Malaysia have voiced concern about the proposed package for a new global trade regime under WTO. India's Commerce Secretary, Mr. Prabir Sengupta has said that ``the draft package given for implementation falls short of our expectations and we have conveyed that''.

While Northern countries continue to fail to keep the commitments made in the Uruguay Round, they continue to try to bully the Third World to make new commitments to create markets for their corporations.

The drafts circulated at the recent General Council meeting in Geneva confirm once again that WTO is an asymmetric body, biased in favour of the North and against the South, with rules written to protect the interests of corporations and extinguish the rights of people.

This is also evident in the manner in which TRIPS has been addressed in the drafts. In the built-in review of TRIPS in the WTO agreement, people and governments have been calling for reform of TRIPS to stop biopiracy (the piracy and patenting of indigenous knowledge), to exclude the patenting of life-forms, or to ensure that countries can use measures such as compulsory licensing to ensure availability and access to affordable medicines and seeds.

Instead of reforming TRIPs to protect the rights of the people, the Draft Decision on Implementation is pushing for the implementation of the TRIPs agreement.

Countries like India had also been negotiating for an enlargement of geographical indicators, beyond wines and spirits to cover products such as Darjeeling tea and basmati rice. However, the Draft Ministerial Declaration has the predictable reference to an agreement to ``examine'', not negotiate.

Conflicts between multilateral environment agreements (MEAs) and WTO have been a major concern for the South and for the environmental community. On the relationship between TRIPs and CBD, (Convention on Biological Diversity), while countries of the South have called for the CBD taking precedence over TRIPs in issues related to biodiversity and indigenous knowledge, the draft declarations blatantly state that the objectives and principles of the TRIPs agreement shall guide the work on indigenous knowledge and biodiversity.

During the Review of the Agreement on Agriculture, countries like India had asked for a food security box. Instead of making a commitment in trade rules to uphold policies and measures for food and livelihood security, the draft merely states: The General Council urges members to exercise restraint in challenging measures notified under the green box by developing countries to promote rural development and adequately address food security concerns.

At a time when globalisation and trade liberalisation forced by WTO and the World Bank is pushing thousands of people to starvation and thousands of farmers to suicide, the WTO draft texts are commitments to continue the genocide. The Draft Ministerial Declaration states, ``We stress our commitment to WTO.'' What is needed at Doha is not a commitment to WTO but a commitment to peoples' rights and democracy. The draft texts have failed on both counts.

At Doha we will witness whether democracy will win or lose. If democracy wins, the call from people across the world to assess the impact of WTO and reform trade rules to ensure they do not violate people's rights to food, health and livelihoods, will be heeded.

If democracy is defeated, unfair and unjust trade rules are preserved and discipline in new areas are once again forced on governments of the South and people of the world under the coercive power of military mobilisation, domestic economies and societies will disintegrate, and survival itself will be threatened. WTO rules are not just about global trade. They determine whether millions live or die.

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