Copyright 1999 InterPress Service, all rights reserved.
          Worldwide distribution via the APC networks.

                      *** 10-Dec-99 ***

Title: TRADE: Failure Of WTO Talks Applauded, Africa Feels Vindicated

By Lewis Machipisa and Remi Oyo

LAGOS, Dec 10 (IPS) - ''It was an amazing week'', Martin Khor,
director of the Third World Network (TWN), tapped on his keyboard
narrating events that took place at the just ended but failed
Third Ministerial talks of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) held
in Seattle, US.

''At the end, the WTO Ministerial Conference that was supposed
to launch a new Round collapsed, suddenly, in almost total chaos,
like a house of cards,'' typed Khor, whose group is made up of non-
governmental organisations (NGOs) in Third world countries
involved in development and environment issues.

It's rare that failure gives reason for celebration, but the
just concluded WTO ministerial meeting in Seattle has brought huge
relief to African countries.

From Lagos, Nairobi, Harare and Johannesburg, the collapse of
the Third Ministerial Talks in Seattle is being saluted as victory
for all developing countries.

Nathan Shamuyarira, minister of Industry and Commerce, who led
the Zimbabwe delegation to the talks, told journalists upon his
return that the failure of the trade talks was a warning that
Africa should be taken seriously in next year's negotiations.

Nigeria's manufacturers are also relieved. In separate meetings
this week, the producers lamented the world trade system had not
alleviated the multiple problems plaguing the Nigerian economy.

African countries feel vindicated. After four days of talks,
protests by the civil society and rights groups, there was no new
Round, no Declaration, not even a brief joint statement to thank
the hosts or decide on the follow up process.

For the first time in the history of the WTO, the developing
countries spoke with one voice and never swayed from their
positions.

It was a memorable victory for them. But, as the negotiations
return to Geneva, where the WTO representatives would continue to
negotiate on a draft declaration, Yash Tandon of the Zimbabwe-
based International South Group Network (ISGN) warns that having
lost the battle, ''we are likely to witness much arms-twisting and
carrot-dangling at developing countries by industrialised
countries.''

''Those that are hard to co-opt, such as Zimbabwe, are likely
to face further isolation,'' warns Tandon, who attended the
Seattle parley. ''Those that are easy to co-opt will be sucked in
with tangible rewards.''

''At Seattle, the OAU (Organisation of African Unity) could
stand together in a moment of shared anger at being marginalised.
They could unite on the issue of process.  However, when issues of
substance come to the fore, they are likely to get divided.  The
same is likely to happen to the Caribbean and Latin American
countries.''

''At the same time, the power holders, mainly the US and the EU
(European Union), will now seek to reconcile their differences
much more earnestly. They have seen that when they quarrel, the
proletarian nations of the world unite in rebellion,'' says
Tandon.

According to Khor, the more basic cause of the Seattle debacle
was the untransparent and undemocratic nature of the WTO system,
the blatant manipulation of that system by the major powers, and
the refusal of many developing countries to continue to be on the
receiving end.

Tandon, however, says that even though the developing countries
united against the undemocratic nature of the WTO, the experience
of Seattle will not lead to immediate democratisation of the WTO.
''The big players have much to lose by that,'' he says.

Tandon, who is based in the Zimbabwean capital of Harare, says
the next strategy of all progressive forces in the world would
continue with the work that they have been doing, in a more
intense manner and at deeper levels.

He suggests five levels of action. Further analytical and
educational work on substantive issues that will be negotiated in
Geneva, such as agriculture, services, investment, competition,
procurement, environment, and labour standards.

The second suggestion emphasises the building of stronger
alliances that cut across nations and peoples. The third calls for
deepening ideological and theoretical discussions.

''Seattle was a challenge not simply to the WTO; it was a
challenge to the whole process of liberalisation and
globalisation,'' says Tandon. ''Much more work needs to be done at
the institutional level, such as in SADC (the 14-nation Southern
African Development Community) in Southern Africa and in the OAU
at the continental level.''

Noting that the unity of the OAU at Seattle was a product of
largely conjectural factors, Tandon warns the pan-African body
against reverting to ''its usual fractious passivity.''

''The SADC, on the other hand, is already a divided house, with
South Africa going along with the global power brokers rather than
with the rest of its membership,'' he says.

To forge unity, Tandon calls for the strengthening of the
institutional capacity of African organisations to protect and
serve the interests of Africa rather than those of either global
corporations or their local agents.

Khor says the main message of the protesters in Seattle was
heard loud and clear, that the WTO has gone much too far in
setting global rules that "lock in" the interests of big
corporations at the expense of developing countries, the poor, the
environment, workers and consumers.

''The impact of grassroots protests against globalisation,
already evident in the campaigns on the multilateral agreement on
investment (MAI) and against genetic engineering, had its coming-
of-age in the street battles of Seattle,'' says Khor.

Stella Okoli, spokesperson for the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing
sector in Nigeria, says that membership of the WTO should not be
used for killing local industries. ''No government in the world
opens its doors without very stringent conditions to imported
goods which can be produced locally'', she says.

Does the Seattle debacle give hope for reform to the WTO's
decision-making system?

''That depends really on whether the developing countries can
now make use of the impasse to press for a democratic system, for
example by abolishing the green-room process that belongs to the
feudal age, and which ultimately sank Seattle,'' says
Khor.(END/IPS/lm/ro/mn/99)


Origin: Harare/TRADE/
                              ----

       [c] 1999, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS)
                     All rights reserved

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