Kofi Annan in Seattle

[jbor]

http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/deb9-cn.htm 

'Developing nations reject labour issues in WTO'

by Chakravarthi Raghavan

Attempts by the US and the EU at the Seattle Ministerial to bring the issue
of labour standards within the ambit of the WTO were met with a strong
rebuff by the developing countries.

snip


Let UN agencies tackle labour and environment, says Annan
Stressing that the developing countries have legitimate and justified fears
about the inclusion of labour and environmental issues in the WTO agenda,
Kofi Annan has suggested that these issues should be dealt with by the UN
agencies.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan has said in Seattle
on 30 November that labour and environment issues should not be used as
pretexts for 'trade restrictions' and they were better dealt with by the
specialised UN agencies promoting their cause.

In an address to the WTO Ministerial, Annan justified the current fears of
developing countries by recounting the high price they had paid in past
attempts to liberalise the world economy.

'In the past, developing countries had been told time and again that they
stand to benefit from trade liberalisation, and that they must open up their
economies. They have done so, often at great cost. For the poorest
countries, the cost of implementing trade commitments can be more than a
whole year's budget.'

Annan pointed out that in the last great round of liberalisation - the
Uruguay Round - the developing countries cut their tariffs as they were told
to do so. 'Even so, they found that rich countries had cut their tariffs
less than poor ones. Not surprisingly, many of them feel they were taken for
a ride.'

Industrialised countries, it seems, he said, are happy enough to export
manufactured goods to each other, but from developing countries they still
want only raw materials, not finished products. As a result, their average
tariffs on the manufactured products they import from developing countries
are now four times higher than the ones they impose on products that come
mainly from other industrialised countries.


'Disguised protectionism'

Ever more elaborate ways have been found to exclude Third World imports, the
UN Secretary-General said, 'and these protectionist measures bite deepest in
areas where developing countries are most competitive, such as textiles,
footwear and agriculture.'

'In some industrialised countries, it seems almost as though emerging
economies are assumed to be incapable of competing honestly, so that
whenever they do produce something at a competitive price they are accused
of dumping - and subjected to anti-dumping duties,' he added.
In reality, stated Annan, 'it is the industrialised countries who are
dumping their surplus food on world markets - a surplus generated by
subsidies worth $250 billion every year - and thereby threatening the
livelihood of millions of poor farmers in the developing world, who cannot
compete with subsidised imports.'

'So it is hardly surprising if developing countries suspect that arguments
for using trade policy to advance various good causes are really yet another
form of disguised protectionism,' the UN Secretary-General said.
He also cautioned against using globalisation as a scapegoat for domestic
policy failures. 'The industrialised world must not try to solve its own
problems at the expense of the poor. It seldom makes sense to use trade
restrictions to tackle problems whose origins lie not in trade but in other
areas of national and international policy. By aggravating poverty and
obstructing development, such restrictions often make the problems they are
trying to solve even worse.'

What is needed is not new shackles for world trade, said Annan, but greater
determination by governments to tackle social and political issues directly
- and to give the institutions that exist for that purpose the funds and the
authority they need. 'The United Nations and its specialised agencies are
charged with advancing the cause of development, the environment, human
rights and labour. We can be part of the solution.'

The UN Secretary-General warned that 'Unless we convince developing
countries that globalisation really does benefit them, the backlash against
it will become irresistible. That would be a tragedy for the developing
world, and indeed for the world as a whole.' - TWN/SUNS4564


best