[asia-apec 537] NZ - APEC/Albright Visit - Media Release

[Gatt Watchdog]

GATT Watchdog
PO Box 1905,
Otautahi (Christchurch) 8015
Aotearoa (New Zealand)

MEDIA RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE USE

31/7/1998

Albright Visit: Team Coach Arrives for Pep Talk with Cheerleaders:
Fair Trade Group cries "foul"

On the eve of US Secretary of State's whirlwind visit to New Zealand, fair
trade coalition GATT Watchdog is crying "foul".

"Madeleine Albright's visit to meet with Prime Minister Jenny Shipley and
other senior ministers is reminiscent of the team coach of an extremely
unsporting team swanning in for a quick pep talk with its cheerleaders.  But
unlike tomorrow's Bledisloe Cup match, their game won't be rugby - but
advancing US economic and political interests in the name of free trade and
investment - particularly with regard to next year's hosting of the APEC
meetings here in New Zealand," said Aziz Choudry, spokesperson for GATT
Watchdog, a coalition of non-government organisations and community groups
which is opposed to the trade and investment liberalisation agenda of APEC
and the World Trade Organisation (WTO - formerly the GATT).

"A top priority for tomorrow's talks will be trade and economic relations
between the two countries.  New Zealand has played an active cheerleading
role in supporting the US push to promote free trade, and in particular to
transform APEC from a loose regional forum for technical cooperation on
economic issues into a vehicle to open up markets and economies for the US's
own economic interests especially those of its powerful corporations which
have greatly shaped the global framework for trade and investment rules to
advance their own interests."

"No-one should be fooled by US statements about free trade and investment and
the importance of consolidating a multilateral trading system. The US has a
poor record of honouring its international commitments in such forums as the
GATT.  It is highly pragmatic and selective about what rules it will obey.
It even insists on the sovereign right to use unilateral sanctions against
any country it considers to be behaving unfairly towards it - at the same
time as demanding that all other countries subordinate their sovereign right
to make their own decisions to the international trade rules".

"Unlike Lancaster Park, the playing field of the free market is not level.
Some would argue that it slopes all the way down to Washington.  The US
government and the world's other powerful economic units, both countries and
corporations, continue to fix the match results," said Mr Choudry.  

However, Mr Choudry pointed out that the Clinton administration's continued
failure to win approval for "fast-track" authority to negotiate new trade
agreements was a clear sign that many Americans are questioning the supposed
benefits of globalisation as their wages and living conditions are being
eroded as they are forced to compete with industries sited in countries with
lower wages and lower or non-existent environmental standards.

"US commitment to free trade is conditional, not doctrinal like those of
successive New Zealand governments.  US Trade Representative Charlene
Barshefsky recently said that "...Americans must drive the rules of the new
global landscape and the opening of markets".  Under the last round of the
GATT, for example, all signatories, including Third World nations, were
committed to reduce export subsidies - but it institutionalised the direct
income subsidies paid out to US and European Union farmers by their
governments.   Now even as the US is renewing calls for New Zealand to
dismantle its producer boards, it continues to subsidise its dairy exports
through its Dairy Export Incentive Programme.  Meanwhile it wants to pry
markets open right around the world in order to drive down the US trade
deficit. So much for "free trade"!"

"US trade policy is classic "do as we say, not as we do" stuff.  Mrs
Albright's visit is no cause for celebration - it is just part of an ongoing
US effort to get all countries running faster and faster in a race to the
bottom to attract investment and increase exports - regardless of the human
and environmental costs.  With the continuing Asian economic crisis and the
growing gap between rich and poor in New Zealand after a decade and a half of
Rogernomics, Ruthanasia, and Jenocide it is time for reflection on the real
cost of subscribing to the free market economic growth model, not for more
meaningless hype and photo opportunities of Jenny and Madeleine," he
concluded.

For further comment phone: Aziz Choudry, GATT Watchdog on (03) 3662803 (w)