Civil Society Groups call on their Trade Ministers to build a multilateral trade system that is just, sustainable and democratic

Responding to the release of new negotiating texts at the WTO, civil society groups from all over the world sent letters to their Trade Ministers, calling on them to acknowledge the failure of the Doha Round.

“We believe that the time has come to officially declare the Doha Round of the WTO negotiations dead and to provide the necessary space to re-think the kind of multilateral trade rules that are needed to create employment and achieve sustainable development,” the letter states. It was signed by over 90 civil society organizations from more than 35 countries, both developed and developing.

Ever since the launch of the Round in 2001, people all over the world, including farmers, fisherfolk, workers and trade unionists, environmentalists, faith-based groups and other civil society organizations, have been denouncing the Doha talks as paying little attention to peoples’ rights and needs. “Doha was supposed to be the ‘development’ round. But what has transpired over the intervening six years has been quite the opposite”, the letter states.

The civil society groups say that it is becoming clear that the current model of trade cannot deliver on the alleged goal of the Doha Round – to promote development and lift millions of people out of poverty – and that WTO Members will never be able to agree on a deal within the current parameters. The groups ask Trade Ministers to:

• Acknowledge the failure of the Doha Round

• Institute a two year moratorium to provide the time and space necessary to re-think the model and process of global trade negotiations.

• Stimulate public discussion and debate with governments and civil society about creating alternative trade regimes

A number of groups from the Philippines signed the letter: the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL), Coalition Against Trafficking in Women – Asia Pacific (CATW-AP), Focus on the Global South, Global Network Asia, IBON Foundation, Inc., Labor Education and Research Network (LEARN), PAKISAMA, Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM) and Tebtebba.

HON. PETER FAVILA
Secretary
Department of Trade and Industry

Cc: Pascal Lamy, WTO Director-General
Ambassador Falconer, Chair, Committee of Agriculture, Special Session;
Ambassador Stephenson, Chair, Negotiating group on Market Access

18 July 2007

Subject: Doha is dead, time to rethink the multilateral trading system

Dear Sec. Favila,

As civil society organizations and social movements committed to building a multilateral trade system that is just, sustainable and democratic, we believe that the time has come to officially declare the Doha Round of the WTO negotiations dead and to provide the necessary space to re-think the kind of multilateral trade rules that are needed to create employment and achieve sustainable development.

It is now almost six years since the Doha Agenda was launched in November 2001. What has followed since then is a litany of setbacks and/or failures — from the collapse of the Cancun Ministerial in 2003, followed by the July framework cobbled together in 2004, then the desperate moves of the 2005 Hong Kong Ministerial to breathe new life into the Doha agenda, which led to the suspension of the WTO negotiations in 2006 and now the recent breakdown of the G-4 talks in Potsdam.

Doha was supposed to be the ?development? round. But what has transpired over the intervening six years has been quite the opposite. Instead of coming up with a set of multilateral trade rules designed to increase the capacities of developing countries to create new jobs, eliminate poverty and build sustainable economies, the Doha Agenda has been manipulated to primarily serve the interests of the northern industrialized powers to expand market access for their transnational corporations.

All the studies that have come out since 2005 —from the World Bank, UNCTAD, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Tuft University and the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) — demonstrate that the current proposals for the Doha Agenda make developing countries, and particularly the poorest countries, the biggest losers.

Millions of people all over the world, including farmers, fisherfolk, workers and trade unionists, environmentalists, faith-based groups and other civil society organizations, have been denouncing the Doha talks as promoting a “corporate-driven” model of trade that pays little attention to peoples’ rights and needs. Now, more than ever, world leaders must face up to the fact that the global trade regime has marginalized a vast array of communities and interests who have finally united to stop any further expansion of the system.

The Doha Agenda and Model have failed to increase the trust of WTO?s membership, let alone the public it is supposed to serve. Around the world, people have informed themselves and popular opinion has changed to the point where the WTO is suffocating from a crisis of legitimacy. And, no effort by free trade champions to ?better educate? the public or adopt ?quick fixes? can reverse this reality. Declaring the death of Doha does not mean the end of world trading system. Another multilateralism is possible, but not one that prioritizes the rights of corporations over the rights of people and the planet while reducing the power to self-govern.

We urge you to acknowledge the failure of the Doha Round now and call on you to institute a two year moratorium to provide the time and space necessary to re-think the model and process of global trade negotiations. It’s time to go back home, and start a process of reflection and consultation with your peoples that can pave the way for a new and different model of multilateral trade. The only credible option now is to stimulate public discussion and debate with governments and civil society and social movements about creating alternative trade regimes that are people, development, and environment centered.

Signed by:

ActionAid International
International
Advocacy and Monitoring Network on Sustainable Development (AM-Net)
Japan

AITEC
France
Alianza Social Continental
Regional
Alliance for Democracy
United States
Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL)
Philippines
Andhra pradesh vyavasay vruthidarula union
India
ASC – Caplo Peruano
Peru
Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM)
Hong Kong, SAR
AsiaDHRRA
Asia
Asian Farmers ‘ Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA)
Asia
Asian Indigenous Women’s Network
Asia
ATTAC
Argentina
Attac Austria
Austria
ATTAC HUNGARY
Hungary
ATTAC Japan
Japan
ATTAC Norway
Norway
ATTAC Sweden
Sweden
Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network (AFTINET)
Australia
Blue Planet Project
International
California Fair Trade Coalition
United States
Campagna riforma Banca Mondiale Italy
Italy
Campaign for the Welfare State
Norway
Campaign GENOA 2001
Greece
Canadian Council for International Co-operation
Canada
Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives
Canada
Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network
Canada
Caribbean Policy Development Center (CPDC)
Caribbean
Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence
Austria
Coalition Against Trafficking in Women ? Asia Pacific (CATW-AP)
Asia
Consumers Association of Penang
Malaysia
Convergencia de Movimientos de Pueblos de las Am?cas – COMPA
Regional
Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO)
The Netherlands
Council of Canadians
Canada
Development Fund
Norway
Ecologistas en Acci

HON. PETER FAVILA
Secretary
Department of Trade and Industry

Dear Secretary Favila,

We are alarmed over reports of a possible compromise deal on Non-agricultural Market Access (NAMA) negotiations. The latest proposal from developing countries led by Chile for a “middle ground” solution represents a serious break from the position of NAMA 11 of which the Philippines is an active member.

It is clear that the United States and the European Union want to squeeze as much as they can from developing countries on NAMA as pay back for what they claim to be their own concessions in agriculture, concessions that many analysts feel are not even enough to level the playing field in agriculture. It is clear that the US and EU want an ambitious NAMA formula in order to pry open the market for industrial and fisheries sector in developing countries.

The new NAMA proposal coming as it were in the aftermath of the collapse of the G4 meeting in Potsdam, and which is projected as an initiative from developing countries plays dangerously into the strategy of the US and EU. This is exactly the opening that the US and EU were hoping for in Potsdam. The proposal hands the compromise to them in a silver platter.

The call from the new proposal for more flexibility and compromise should be seriously challenged. In Hong Kong, developing countries have already made a huge compromise when they agreed to adopt the ambitious Swiss formula for tariff reductions. Under an ambitious formula, developing countries would absorb close to 70% cuts in their industrial and fishery tariffs as opposed to the measly 25 % cuts for developed countries. Simulations done by both the WTO and international trade unions have already provided us a picture of the possible consequences on jobs and revenues under an ambitious NAMA agreement.

A coefficient for developing countries in the high teens would be a murderous compromise on the part of the Philippines. Such an ambitious formula would result in a substantial reduction of our average bound rates for industrial and fishery products and would constitute a serious erosion of our policy space. Sectors that would be adversely affected include the automotive sector, apparel, plastics, leather products and footwear, and the furniture sector which would all absorb cuts not just in bound rates but in actual applied rates. Huge cuts on bound rates would be felt in rubber products, fabricated metals, wood and wood products, and paper and paper products.

A compromise deal on NAMA would compromise jobs. Job losses could be expected in the motor vehicles sector, which employs around 39,000, the apparel sector with an even bigger employment of 370,000, the leather and footwear sector with 69,000 workers, furniture sector with 143,000 workers and plastic products which provides jobs to 54,000 workers.

We do not need to remind you that central to the NAMA 11 position is the demand to put the development objective at the heart of the NAMA negotiations. The compromise deal on NAMA undermines this very objective.

We challenge you now in this most critical time in the negotiations to exhibit leadership in NAMA 11. We challenge you to be the leading developing country voice in NAMA 11 in calling for the rejection of the new NAMA proposal.

“No deal is still better than a bad deal” Mr. Secretary and in the interest of Filipino workers, we hope that this is still your guiding principle.

Stop the New Round! Coalition
Akbayan
Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL)
Alternate Forum for Research in Mindanao (AFRIM)
Association of Genuine Labor Organization (AGLO)
Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP)
Coalition Against Trafficking in Women – Asia Pacific (CATW-AP)
Confederation of Independent Unions in the Public Sector (CIU)
Convergence for Community Centered Area Development
Focus on the Global South – Philippines
Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC)
Global Network Asia
International Gender and Trade Network – Asia
Kilusang para sa Pambansang Demokraysa
Kongreso ng Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Pilipinas (KPMP)
Labor Education and Research Network (LEARN)
Liga Manggagawa
Makabayan – Pilipinas
Manggagawa para sa Kalayaan ng Bayan (MAKABAYAN)
Pambansang Katipunan ng Malayang Magbubukid – PKKM
Philippine Metalworkers’ Alliance (PMA)
Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM)
Resource Center for People’s Development (RCPD)
Women and Gender Institute (WAGI)