Eye on Geneva: WTO Ministerial Gets Underway in Geneva
The seventh ministerial of the WTO got underway in Geneva on November 30, 2009--on the tenth anniversary of the WTO protests in Seattle, which resulted in WTO's failure to launch the new Millennium round and delivered such a strong blow to the institution that has been difficult to recover from. Ten years later, with the WTO's reputation and credibility in tatters as one sixth of humanity lives in the throes of hunger and a global financial crisis that has impacted nearly all economies, expansion of the WTO remains at best wishful thinking.
The past failures of the WTO have set the tone for this ministerial in Geneva – trade ministers from 139 countries have gathered at the heavily barricaded Centre International de Conferences Geneve (CICG), not to negotiate, but to assess "WTO's role in aiding recovery from the global economic crisis." The effort to cast WTO and conclusion of the Doha Round as way to deal with the pressing issues of growing unemployment, poverty and hunger, is being spear headed by WTO's Director General Pascal Lamy. In an NGO briefing, prior to the opening session, when reminded that the ministerial does not have negotiations on its agenda since the neo-liberal policies of free trade and the free market promoted by the WTO are at the center of the financial, food and employment crises, Lamy's response was "I have not heard trade being blamed for the crises... I have not seriously heard it before...." Ignoring laughter that his response invoked, he went on to argue that "trade is not the cause of the crises...but a victim of the crises."
A communique from the G33, released on Sunday November 29, states otherwise: "We observe that the current economic and financial crisis has highlighted the issue of marginalization and eroded the legitimacy of globalization." G33 is the group of developing countries in the WTO agriculture negotiations who are mostly net food importing countries committed to the protection of local farmers whose livelihoods are dependent on agriculture and who produce and guarantee food security for their economies.
As the spin advisories pitch the WTO as a way to deal with the most pressing issues of our times, social movements, labor unions and civil society organizations are demanding a “WTO turnaround” instead of the same failed policies. This was loud and clear as the opening ceremony got underway. Representatives of the farmer organizations, unions, NGOs, and civil society groups chanted, "No Doha Round: Turn Around" and belted out a new version of Jingle Bells.....
No New Round, turn around
The world has had enough
All your threats an bluffs and bets
Are simply empty stuff
Ooh
Doha’s dead so go away
We’ve had enough of you
Aid for Trade is the game you play
Its empty through and through...
There has much much buzz around Obama's administration's position on the WTO and this ministerial. U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk on arriving in Geneva, declared in a statement that "the United States engages with other economies and plays a leadership role at the World Trade Organization in order to boost American exports and grow the well-paid jobs Americans want and need." In the meanwhile, U.S. efforts to extract more market access concessions from key countries in bilateral meetings, have come under criticism from both China and Brazil.
Back home, Seattle woke up to an opinion editorial in the Seattle Times from Gary Locke, Secretary of the U.S. Dept. of Commerce and the Governor of Washington State during the Seattle protests. Recognizing that Seattle brought out thousands of people from labor, faith organizations and other nongovernmental organizations, concerned about jobs, wages, the environment and human rights, he advocates that trade policies under the new administration need to have high standards on labor, environmental and human rights that will protect workers here and abroad.
What drew the attention and cheers from the global civil society was the news of the introduction of the Trade Act in the Senate by U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown. The act which seeks to revamp U.S. trade policies, including WTO renegotiation, has 130 sponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The mood in the streets of Geneva and in the convention center is well described by Victor Menotti of the International Forum on Globalization. In How WTO’s collapse clears the way to solve today’s food, fuel, and financial crises, he says, "Solving today’s crises requires a paradigm shift from competitive to cooperative relations among nations and peoples. Global civil society has harnessed enough power to counter the expansion of the global corporate agenda, but can it unify around some of the strategic opportunities, such as the climate process, to balance global governance and define new international instruments that protect universal rights? Such are the pathways now opening up before us. The political moment in history demands we go on the offensive to propose our own alternatives. Indeed, another world is already arriving …"
See Videos of Protest at the Opening Ceremony
Filipino fisherfolk action outside ministerial conference building