[asia-apec 62] Please reply to Carolyn Deere <cdeere@extro.ucc.su.OZ.AU>

[Danny Kennedy]

Dear Friend,  

A SEED Australia has devoted this year to raising public and media awareness
in Australia about the problems with APEC.   On Wednesday the 28th August we
will be staging an action at the Gala Dinner of the APEC Energy Ministers'
here in Sydney.  This will be followed in two weeks by an APEC `Teach-In'
for community and non-government groups to encourage them to incorporate
attention to APEC in their work and to work together with us in preparation
for the Alternative Peoples' Forum in Manila in November.  We are having a
small celebration here today as the concerns about the APEC Energy
Ministers' Meeting and the APEC process itself were the top news story on
our national radio station !  The word is getting out.  We hope other people
are having similar successes and that you can help us by getting in contact
and forwarding on any analysis you have about APEC related issues.
Following is the background briefing we have written for community
organisations.

----------------------------------------

Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)  or Social and Environmental
Devastation ?

An A SEED Australia Campaign: Briefing Kit

>From the 26-30th August, 1996 the APEC Energy Minister will meet in Sydney
for an International Energy and Environment Conference entitled - Meeting
the Energy Challenge. A SEED Australia will be using the occasion to
publicly launch its campaign against the current neoliberal agenda of APEC
and to encourage the Australian government to urgently embark on a series of
public consultations around this agreement.

BACKGROUND
APEC is being publicised by politicians, prominent business people  and the
mainstream media as a significant step forward for economic development of
the already `fastest growing region in the world'. Already controllers of
56% of the world's GNP and 46% of its trade, the 18 APEC nations signed the
1994 Bogor Declaration of their resolve to promote regional cooperation
amongst `partner countries'.  In November 1995, the Osaka Action Agenda
established a blueprint and commitment to three areas: trade facilitation,
trade liberalisation and economic cooperation.

THE ISSUES
The question we pose to the Australian government is `Cooperation in whose
interest ?'  Like the World Trade Organisation and North American Free Trade
Agreement before it, APEC aims to abolish international barriers to trade
without taking into consideration political, social and environmental
impacts.  Our major concerns are the following:

1)	 Agriculture and the Rural Poor
wLiberalisation measures ignore the failure of market mechanisms in terms of
effective environmental resource management.  The commercialisation of
agriculture, including the commercial patenting of seed varieties,
undermines food security, biodiversity and indigenous agricultural
traditions.  Furthermore, the further opening of domestic markets in some
developing countries in the face of still depressed world market prices will
reduce the income of many small farmers, and even their chance of staying in
production.  

2)  	Workers' Rights
w	The liberalisation of investment will further facilitate the mobility of
capital, by removing existing restrictions on foreign investors, and further
reduce the bargaining power of labour.  Increased competition tends to
create a `race to the bottom', in terms of wages, conditions and job security.  

3)	 Effects on the Environment
w	Many trade restrictions have been designed to restrict the importation of
goods considered dangerous to the environment or to human, animal or plant
life, for example, dangerous pesticides or industrial or nuclear waste.
Such restrictions run against the spirit of free trade and are subverted by
agreements such as the  GATT/WTO, NAFTA and now by APEC.

w	APEC will discourage government environmental regulation while
facilitating the international movement of corporations and competition.  In
reality, increased competition often leads to `pollution havens' as
corporations flock to areas with lax environmental regulation (meaning lower
production costs) such as the experience of the US-Mexico border.   Mining
is another excellent example of the impacts of reduced government regulation
similar to those proposed by APEC. It will promote the influx of western
mining companies into countries where indigenous peoples, small farmers and
the rural poor suffer disproportionately. 

4)	Undemocratic Processes
w	Many NGOs and community groups have complained about a lack of democratic
participation in decision making in the APEC process.  There has been
minimal consultation with the community and NGOs, though the private sector
has been incorporated into APEC through the Pacific Business Forum.  APEC
processes are intangible and unaccountable: APEC operates through an
invisible series of leaders and ministerial meetings, scripted by officials,
and coordinated by a small secretariat in Singapore.  APEC provides no
mechanism for popular sovereignty over the outcomes of the international
decision making process.

A SEED's POSITION
As the APEC Energy Ministers meet together to discuss Energy, the
Environment and the economic prospects of Asia Pacific Countries, we raise
your attention to the fact that APEC perpetuates the kind of `economic
rationalist' logic that already has Australia's progressive community
outraged.  A SEED Australia condemns APEC as a corporate-driven manifesto of
a `neo-liberal' ideology long since discredited.  The threat it poses to the
populations and the environment of the Asia-Pacific is real and enormous.  

We call on community groups, non-government organisations and the general
public to:
. Write to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister for Trade
demanding their support for a representative Social Forum within APEC's
structure so that the social, economic and political concerns of citizens
groups and non government organisations  about free trade can be heard. 
. Demand an Australian APEC Advisory Council, bringing together Australia's
environmental, social justice, development, student and human rights
organisations.  
. Support the attached Sign-on Letter of the Climate Action Network of
Australia which appeals to the APEC Ministers Meeting to build a more
ecologically sustainable energy framework  for the Asia Pacific. 

WHAT THE WORLD IS DOING !
 In response to the fourth Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit
to be hosted by  the Philippine Government some 450 representatives from
non-government organisations, people's organisations and social movements
across the Asia Pacific will converge in Manila in November 1996. This
gathering is an effort to focus the attention of the international
community-particularly the member-countries of the Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC)-on the need to reflect the people's concerns for human
rights, gender, social equity and environmental sustainability in the APEC
agenda. Dubbed the 1996 People's Forum on the APEC, the Manila conference is
the continuation of the initiative started in Kyoto in 1995 to provide a
parallel process of peoples, communities and sectors affected by the free
trade and economic integration agenda.

In Australia, you can support the following:
. Energy and Environment Action and Alternative Press Conference to be held
at APEC Energy Ministers Meeting. Watch your fax for action updates.
 
. Our second Globalisation Teach- In, this time focussed on APEC with
seminars, workshops and videos as well as a plenary session to start
building a coalition working towards the APEC Annual Meeting in November.
Sunday September 15th, UNSW, 9.30 am

A more detailed position paper is available from A SEED.  If you want more
information or can offer your involvement or support in our upcoming media
activities please call A SEED on (02) 9261-3181. 

A SEED (Action for Solidarity, Equality, Environment and Development)
AUSTRALIA is part of an international network of youth-led non-government
organisations committed to offering an alternative analysis to global
environment and development problems.