[asia-apec 488] GATT Watchdog Media Release - APEC 99

[jane kelsey]

Hi. Looks good. Sorry but I'm caught up in AUS academic freedom stuff 
at present then have to finish writing s rather important (workwise!)  
conference paper. Not a lot of help at the minute I'm afraid. x Jane
On Fri, 26 Jun 98 15:15:00 +1200 Gatt Watchdog 
<gattwd at corso.ch.planet.gen.nz> wrote:

> GATT Watchdog
> PO Box 1905
> Otautahi (Christchurch) 8015
> AOTEAROA/NEW ZEALAND
> Email: gattwd at corso.ch.planet.gen.nz
> 
> 
> MEDIA RELEASE
> 
> 26/06/98
>  
> For Immediate Use
> 
> Coalition Government Told To Cut APEC Funding As Crisis Continues
> 
> With the Shipley government set to review its short-term spending
> commitments "if circumstances require it", after next Monday's cabinet
> briefing in light of the impact of the Asian economic downturn, GATT Watchdog
> is calling on the government to pull the plug on spending on what it
> describes as a "hideously expensive pre-election photo opportunity" - APEC
> 1999.
> 
> "It is quite clear that we cannot afford to host the APEC meetings in 1999.
> That would be at least $50 million (according to government estimates) less
> for the free market slash-and-burn brigade to try to snatch from the
> increasingly underfunded health, welfare and education budgets," says a GATT
> Watchdog spokesperson, Aziz Choudry.
> 
> "We can't afford APEC financially, economically or socially. Hundreds of jobs
>  in the clothing and autoassembly sectors have been brutally sacrificed in
>  just the last few weeks as a result of the government's lemming-like desire
>  to lead the world in throwing open its economy."
> 
> "The same Asian economic crisis which has prompted Monday's briefing and
> contributed to New Zealand's economic woes cannot be divorced from the narrow
>  economic agenda which underpins APEC.  The economies of countries throughout
>  the Asia-Pacific which have adopted the market model and been made dependent
>  on the unregulated flow of international capital are falling like
>  dominoes."
>  
> "These are testing times, as the Prime Minister rightly says - so it is high
> time that the government faced the fact that our current sorry state is in
> large part due to the extremist free trade, free market policies which have
> put us at the mercy of a globalised economy over which we have no
> control."
> 
> "Mrs Shipley said the Coalition Agreement allowed for policies to be varied
> if economic circumstances warranted it.   She said : 'We will consider all
> options if necessary.'  Let's see if she can live up to this
> statement."
> 
> "Critics of APEC, the GATT/WTO and globalisation have long warned about the
> vulnerability of domestic economies in a globalised world.  But the
> government continues to deny that there is a downside to the more-market
> madness it tries to pass off as sound economic and social policy."
> 
> "The whole free market model is under increasing threat from the economic
> crisis which eclipsed last year's APEC meetings in Vancouver and shows few
> signs of ending", claimed Mr Choudry. "But the freemarket fundamentalists
> have never let the facts get in the way of their fanciful claims that the
> market knows best".
> 
> "The promises of economic activity generated by the holding of an APEC Summit
>  to the host country and city are always overestimated and the costs of
>  holding them underestimated. The Canadian public were told that APEC 1997
>  would be a modest affair, but the costings told another story. Estimates put
>  the total price of the APEC Summit at C $57.4 million, including around C
>  $15 million for security alone.  A Tourism Vancouver study, expecting larger
>  numbers than the actual figure of around 4700 delegates and 2700 media put
>  economic spinoffs from the meetings at $23 million in visitor spending,
>  taxes and wages.  APEC 1999 will be nothing more than a hideously expensive
>  pre-election photo-opportunity," he said.
> 
> For further comment, contact: Aziz Choudry, GATT Watchdog ph 03 3662803 (w) 
> 

----------------------
jane kelsey
j.kelsey at auckland.ac.nz