The 18 APEC member countries are part of WTO, so this article should be of
interest to all (recipients of this conference, that is).
This is posted with the kind permission of IPS-Mnl.
Mario M.
/* Written 3:41 PM Jul 26, 1996 by newsdesk in igc:ips.english */
/* ---------- "TRADE: No New Issues at Singapore W" ---------- */
Copyright 1996 InterPress Service, all rights reserved.
Worldwide distribution via the APC networks.
*** 23-Jul-96 ***
Title: TRADE: No New Issues at Singapore WTO Meet, Says Developing World
By Martin Khor
KUALA LUMPUR, Jul 22 (IPS) - Political leaders, trade officials
and independent groups in Asia and other developing regions are
increasingly opposing moves by industrial countries to bring new
issues onto the agenda of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Several Asian officials have spoken out against proposals of the
European Union (EU) and the United States to introduce non-trade
issues -- the most contentious being labour standards -- at the
WTO's first Ministerial Conference to be held in Singapore in
December.
In Jakarta, where ASEAN senior officials met at the weekend,
Malaysia's top foreign ministry official, Ahmad Kamil Jaafar said
that the Association of South-east Asian (ASEAN) would take a
common stand to oppose discussion of new issues at the scheduled
WTO conference.
''Malaysia is against new issues like rights of foreign investors
as we cannot give national treatment rights to foreigners,'' he
said ahead of the Jakarta meeting. ''We are also not in favour of
the proposed competition policy rules.''
In Manila, the Philippine Trade and Industry undersecretary Cesar
Bautista also made clear that the 18-member Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) refused to entertain new issues in the WTO,
especially at the Singapore ministerial conference.
He said this was the consensus that emerged during the APEC trade
ministers' meeting recently held in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Chaired by Philippine Trade and Industry secretary Rizalino
Navarro, that meeting agreed the WTO should focus on unfinished
business following the Uruguay Round conclusion, and on the built-
in agenda of work, before entertaining new topics.
The differences in perception on the future programme of the WTO,
and especially on the agenda of the Singapore conference, is
threatening to cause a North-South split in the organisation.
The major industrial countries are trying to get developing
countries to accept including new issues like labour standards,
foreign investment and competition policies, and even corruption
into WTO agreements.
Developing countries on the other hand are concerned that
introducing these new issues, which have no direct linkage to
trade, would further erode their sovereignty and limit their
ability to make national policies and construct development
programmes of their own choice.
Intense debates and negotiations are now taking place in the
preparation of the agenda for the Singapore Conference. Most of
these preparatory debates are taking place behind closed doors in
Geneva, where the WTO is headquartered.
Several Northern governments have in recent months also held
meetings to discuss the Singapore Conference agenda in Stockholm,
Canada, Australia and Switzerland.
Earlier in July, many developing countries for the first time got
together in Kuala Lumpur to make their own preparations.
Organised by the Institute of Strategic and International Studies
(ISIS), the conference on 'The WTO: Perspectives from the South'
was attended by about 70 trade policy-makers, WTO diplomats,
academics and businessmen from several developing countries,
including Brazil, Bangladesh, India, Singapore, Thailand, China,
Korea, Egypt, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Ghana.
The main conclusion of the meeting was that the attempt by
Northern countries to put new issues into the WTO poses a danger
to the sovereignty and economic interests of the South, and that
this should be resisted in a united way.
The Conference theme was set by Malaysian Minister of
International Trade and Industry, Rafidah Aziz, who described as
''discomforting'' the move by some developed countries to broaden
the WTO's work programme to include on multi-lateral investment
rules, labour standards, competition policy and corruption.
''These are highly contentious issues and they constitute the
single greatest challenge to the sovereignty and economic
prosperity of the developing countries in the future,'' said
Rafidah.
She noted that developed countries had proposed that the WTO
initiate discussions and subsequently negotiations on
liberalisation and protection of cross-border investments and
rules harmonising national competition policies.
''These moves are of grave concern to developing countries as
they could eventually restrict national governments in their
domestic economic policy making,'' she said.
''In particular, the demand that there should be free movement of
investment across national borders and for national treatment
imply that any investor will have the right to establish a market
presence in any sector in any country and be accorded national
treatment.
''This will remove the right of national governments to implement
national level investment policies which may either restrict a
foreign presence in certain sectors or which may provide
preferential treatment to national firms to enable them to compete
with large established foreign firms.''
Rafidah added that some developed countries are also keen to get
the WTO to forge a direct link between trade and labour rights,
claiming that developing countries' imports were cheap -- not
because of a comparative advantage in production cost but because
of unacceptably low labour standards.
''This is not only politically unacceptable to developing
countries but also does not make sound economic sense,'' she said.
''These issues will have far reaching repercussions on our
development efforts and objectives. Developing countries must
stand together...to counter the proposals.
''We must strive for a united approach, for if we are divided we
will continue to be dominated by the industrialised countries.''
Zimbabwe's Ambassador to the WTO, Dr Tichaona Jokonya, and
Bangladesh's Commerce Secretary, Mofazzal Karim, made similar
assertions, saying that in implementing even the Uruguay Round
commitments, smaller economies are facing a host of problems.
The Singapore meeting should focus on ''how far we have gone''
since the Uruguay Round, said Jokonya. ''We have not yet really
started implementation. How can we talk about the new issues?''
Moreover, added Karim, while the industrial countries are fully
equipped to meet their obligations in the Uruguay Round, many
developing countries do not have the machinery.
''From the (Uruguay Round) agreements, it was not clear whether
poor countries benefited from Round at all,'' he noted. ''If they
do not benefit, they should be compensated. Therefore, a
stocktaking exercise should be done. It is not the time for work
on any new issues.''
And this is particularly so, he added, if the ''new issues are
controversial''.(END/IPS/WD-AP-IP/MK/CPG/96)
Origin: Manila/TRADE/
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