(Sept. 13, 2003, Cancún, Mexico) In solidarity with the farmers who set up a shrine and an encampment at zero kilometers for Lee Kyung-Hae, the South Korean farmer who took his own life on Sept. 10 to demonstrate opposition to the WTO, a vigil was held inside the Convention Center at 4 pm on Sept. 11 to bring the concerns of campesinas inside the negotiations.
Anuradha Mittal, September 13, 2003
http://www.guerrillanews.com/human_rights/doc2914.html
The WTO secretariat and the Mexican government issued a statement expressing regrets at the death of Mr. Lee Kyung-Hae due to “self-inflicted wounds,” ignoring the real problem of depravation and farm foreclosures which is forcing farmers to take such drastic actions.
Around 4 pm, Paul Nicholson, a Basque farmer, representing Via Campesina and Changgeun Lee, International Director of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), along with civil society representatives from around the world, set up a shrine for Mr. Lee outside the press center. During the day, over a 1,000 copies of Mr. Lee’s statement on the impact of free trade policies, published in Korea AgraFood in April 2003, was distributed to the delegates and the press. The farmers delegation then marched across the convention center to an press conference room.
In a solemn ceremony with social justice and environmental activists holding candles and flowers, the farmers delegation which included George Naylor from the National Family Farm Coalition and Ricarrdo Navarro, President of the Friends of the Earth International, along with Changgeun Lee from KCTU, addressed the television cameras and print media, who scrambled to take down every word.
Messages of solidarity for Lee Kyueng-Hae and his family and colleagues in the Korean Federation of Farmers and Fishermen have poured in from around the world.
And as the sun set over the city of Cancún, bringing rain and thunder, the candlelight vigil at the encampment continued with hundreds of youth and others joining in. The Mexican police and security forces watched behind the steel barricades, which have been doubled and strengthened using cement blocks after they were toppled by the protestors at the start of the ministerial on Sept. 9. The youths carried torches, and beat drums, pots and pans to sound their challenge to an institution that is destroying their future and their communities. And a young woman walked up to the barricade and asked the police, “We protest to build a better world for you and your children. Then WHY do you not join us? Why do you work for the oppressors.”
Power Balance Shift in the WTO
Cancún is witnessing a historic event with so many developing countries, which represent over half the world population, uniting to stand up to the bullying by rich nations around crucial issues such as agriculture and investment.
On Thursday, Sept. 11, Ministers representing seventy developing countries, including Bangladesh (on behalf of the LDC Group), Botswana, China, Cuba, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Jamaica (on behalf of the Carribean Community), Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Philippines, Tanzania, Venezuela, Zambia and Zimbabwe, sent the strongest message yet to the EU to abandon its call for negotiations on the four ‘new’ issues of investment, competition policy, government procurement and trade facilitation at the WTO’s Fifth Ministerial Conference in Cancún. Their statement said that there is no explicit consensus on starting negotiations on modalities on the Singapore Issues. Speaking on behalf of the group, Malaysai’s trade minister Rafidah Aziz said “We will not agree to launch negotiations at this meeting.”
On agriculture, the Group of 21, a group of developing countries, is rejecting the text submitted by the General Council chairman as the basis of negotiations on agriculture. This text is based mainly on the U.S. and the EU proposal. The G21–which is growing in numbers–is insisting that its framework proposal, first submitted in Geneva in August and re-issued as a Ministerial document on Sept. 4, be at the center of the agriculture negotiations. Developing countries are demanding a major reduction in agricultural subsidies, which will lead to an elimination of these subsidies by rich nations as an essential part of an agricultural agreement. Joined by Brazil, India, and China, the group represents more than 60 percent of the world’s farmers, whereas the EU and the U.S. account for less than 1 percent. However, subsidies to rich farmers in the U.S. and farmers in the EU amount to $1 billion a day which lead to dumping of cheap subsidized imports from the U.S. and the EU. The agriculture subsidies in the U.S. cost Third World nations $50 billion a year. Ironically it is the same amount that the rich nations give in aid to poor countries.
G21 have made it clear that they don’t want any surprises sprung on them as the ministerial conference shifts into the intensive negotiation phase and that they would not accept a text prepared by the Singapore Minister, George Yeo, appointed as the facilitator for agriculture negotiations, as fait accompli.
Another group of developing countries, now numbering 32 nations, has formed an Alliance for Strategic Products (SP) and Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) to fight for the interests of “small vulnerable resource-poor farmers from developing countries” through strong SP and SSM mechanisms in the Cancún outcome on agriculture. The Alliance proposal is that:
1. Developing countries should have the flexibility to self designate a percent of tariff lines as special products (SPs) which shall not be subject to tariff reductions and no new commitments on tariff rate quota.
2. A special safeguard mechanism (SSM) shall be established for use by developing countries as a mechanism to protect their domestic markets against cheap and subsidized imports.
3. Products designated as SP shall also have access to the SSM.
In response, the European Union criticized the G21 developing countries of being too focused on trying to keep its members united rather than starting the continuation of the Doha Round negotiations on Agriculture. “The time for wasting time should be over by now,” declared Gregor Kreuzhuber, spokesman for EU agriculture commissioner Franz Fischler. “Because if we continue in this way, we’ll never make it by Sunday,” he added, when the five-day ministerial is scheduled to end.
The U.S. delegation’s shocking response was to demand “compensation” from poor countries in the form of access to their markets for American farm products, for any eventual reduction in its agricultural subsidies. Brazilian foreign minister Celso Amorim called the American proposal for compensation “completely unacceptable” and that the developing countries have already “paid” a high price in previous trade negotiations in order to put agriculture in the WTO agenda.
In the meanwhile, a secret document leaked on Sept. 11 containing the changes that the European Union wants to introduce in the draft ministerial text, clearly shows that while the EU insists on calling Cancún negotiations a “development round,” in reality it wants more concessions in the area of services and further access to the markets of the least developed countries. It is seeking to remove all mention of eliminating export subsidies from the final declaration of the ministerial, enraging the developing countries and hopefully further uniting them in numbers and strength.
Corporate Interest leads to Barring of NGOs from Press Briefings
So far NGOs had been allowed into the press briefings at the Cancún Ministerial though they were not allowed to ask questions. Yesterday’s USTR press briefing was interrupted by Greenpeace activists who delivered maize to Mr. Allgeier and Mr. Penin,from the USTR offices. A representative from Greenpeace Latin America then addressed the press briefly on the impact of genetic contamination of maize by GM crops in Mexico. Soon after other activists stood up with signs that said, “WTO Kills Farmers.”
This action was met with hostility and screaming at the protestors by a man wearing press credentials. The WTO secretariat then issued a statement, banning NGO entry into the press briefings. It was later discovered that the man wearing press credentials, William Dabaghi, works for Maximus International. Their website claims, “”Specializing in Agribusiness and Focusing on the WTO.” Prior to this, he worked as a lawyer for Arter and Hadden for 17 years, and had also worked as the director of Congressional Affairs in the Dept. of Transport. Tom Hayden, a fellow at the Nation Institute, present at the conclusion of the briefing, reported that at the end of the briefing, William Dabaghi shook hands with the panelists from the USTR and said, “I will handle the hecklers for you or you would have to do it.”
Anuradha Mittal, a native of India, is the Co-Director of Food First, a leading progressive think tank focusing on food as a human right. She has been published in numerous newspapers and journals including, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Bangkok Post, The Times of India, Economic and Political Weekly, Seattle Times, and The Nation.