[asia-apec 1155] APEC 99: Sunday Supplement, Radio NZ

[Gatt Watchdog]

For Sunday Supplement, RADIO NEW ZEALAND, June 13, 1999

by Prue Hyman

 By now, most New Zealanders know that we are hosting  the 1999 APEC
 meetings. This stands for Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation and covers 21
 countries accounting for 44% of world trade. There will be protests at the
 leaders' meeting in September as there were in Manilla in 96 and Vancouver
 in 97. All police leave has been cancelled and business in central
 Auckland urged to close at peak hours to avoid 'congestion', ironically when
 gains to the local and national economies have been claimed for the meetings.
 Parliament has passed legislation to allow bodyguards of visiting
 dignatories to carry guns, and new Security Intelligence Service
 legislation allows breakins to houses of those regarded as being a threat
 to security, with few safeguards. With a wide definition of 'security'
 adopted in 1996, it effectively allows surveillance of anyone opposed to
 current policies. The break in that year at the house of Aziz Choudry, a
 staunch campaigner for social and economic justice, was ruled illegal by
 the courts, leading to this new legislation.

 All this is ironic when government claims its hosting of APEC will
 "demonstrate to the international community New Zealand's ability, as a
 participatory democracy, to accommodate debate and dissent".
 Demonstrations always hit the media and will make it evident that
 globalisation and its free trade/ more market/ deregulation agendas meets
 considerable  resistance here. I wish the reasoned opposition expressed by
 many organisations
 received the same attention. But this is wishful thinking in a small
 country where the media is mostly owned by overseas transnational
 corporations and is very limited in its investigative role.

 Next week sees an APEC Women Leaders' Network Meeting in Wellington. The
 Prime Minister opens it with an address entitled "Women's Contribution to
 Economic Prosperity" and the brochure talks of " promoting women's full
 participation in Apec policy and decision-making". But except for  Marilyn
 Waring's contribution on "Mapping the Whole Economy", the focus is clearly
 on business and its benefits. Those opposed to this agenda are organising
 an alternative conference, with the main themes Maori rights as
 indigenous people, the negative impacts on women's paid work of globalisation,
 the more market approach in health and education, and concerns about genetic
 engineering and food safety. Their leaflet changes the meaning of the
 initials of APEC to A Patriarchal Exploiters Club, while another version
 is Anti People Economic Control.

 Why then are so many people concerned about APEC, the globalisation
 agenda, and the power of big business? Those conference themes speak volumes
 on some of the issues - we already see job losses, greatly increased
 inequality and poverty, foreign ownership of most of our major assets, and
 exploitation of Maori knowledge for overseas profit. With the mobility of
 business, expendable low paid workers in one country are played off
 against  those in another. Manufacturing is down to 15% of employment while
 car assembly has gone altogether. Jobs in the clothing industry have halved
 in ten years, yet Air New Zealand buys uniforms from Australia.

 And support for free trade, investment and capital flows is based on the
 simplest economic models of gains from trade, ignoring the substantial
 distributional impacts, possible long term costs, and a unrealistic
 assumptions. Even many advocates of free trade in goods and services are
 more doubtful about money movements. Concern about speculative capital
 flows, now about about 90% of the total, has led to considerable support
 for an international financial transactions tax, use of capital controls
 when a currency is under attack, and international buffer funds. But the
 Multilateral Agreement on Investment, halted last year partly due to
 worldwide grassroots pressure, is not dead. It is to be revived in the
 Millennium Round of the World Trade Organisation, planned as an enormous
 globalisation fair where the removal of the final obstacles to capital's
 freedom of action could be negotiated pell-mell.

 What can we do about all this? First be informed and decide for yourself -
 alternative views take a bit of finding from the opposition's writing, on
 the web, at these conferences, but they're around. Second, inform others.
 Only steady work will turn the tide and shift policies at government and
 international levels. Third join the movements creating alternatives at
 local levels: Green Dollar schemes, ethical investment, and the like. We
 can all make a difference.

 
 Prue Hyman, WOMEN'S STUDIES
 Victoria University of Wellington
 PO Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand
 PH:  (0064) 4 4955285 (or 4721000 ext 5285)
 FAX:  (0064) 4 4955046
 e-mail address: Prue.Hyman at vuw.ac.nz (or HymanP at Matai.vuw.ac.nz)