Home > Programs > WSSD 2002 > Daily Report from the WSSD, Day One

Daily Report from the WSSD, Day One

August 26, 2002

• Most Recent WSSD Update
• Other WSSD Updates

US-EU Pushing Trade Liberalization at the WSSD

Delegations to the World Summit were locked in make-or break negotiations over the weekend, before the start of the summit today. One of the most fiercely contested areas has been that of trade, finance, and globalization. Yesterday Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth leaked a "non paper" jointly drafted by the EU and U.S. --a discussion document with no legal status, on trade and globalization. This document was then given to the South African delegation, which made minor changes to it. The paper then became known as the "Chairman's paper on the means of implementation on chapter 9."

Claiming "trade plays a major role in achieving sustainable development and in eradicating poverty," the paper encourages "WTO members to pursue the negotiating agenda and work program agreed at the WTO fourth Ministerial Conference at Doha, Qatar in November 2001." The paper calls for: "Support for successful and timely completion of the work plan contained in the Doha Ministerial Declaration and the implementation of the Monterrey consensus."

Further more, it recommends: "fulfilling, without prejudging the outcome of the negotiations, the commitment for comprehensive negotiations of the Agreement on Agriculture, aiming at substantial improvements in market access, reduction of, with a view to phasing, all forms of export subsidies, and substantial reductions in trade distorting domestic support."

The paper, however, does not outline targets or timeline for phasing out agricultural subsidies to their agribusiness, by the United States or the European Union. The 2002 Farm Bill signed by President Bush in May increased agricultural subsidies by $180 billion over a period of 10 years (mainly for commodity crops such as cotton, corn, etc.). The bill has come under severe criticism not only from the Third World countries but also US's trading partners such as Australia, Canada and others.

This sham was evident this afternoon at the briefing conducted for the NGOs by the U.S. government delegation. John Turner, head of the U.S. delegation, talked about U.S. key initiatives at the Summit. This includes "Preventing Famine in Southern Africa." Anuradha Mittal, Co Director of Food First, questioned him on the US position on the precautionary principle and if this initiative took into account the recent rejection of US food aid, contaminated by genetically modified organisms, by several African countries. She also reminded Mr. Turner of USAID's response, "beggars cannot be choosers." While emphatically claiming that the United States does not use aid as a political weapon, Mr. Turner said, "... however we leverage our assistance to our expectations." He also avoided the question of US and the EU advocating removal of subsidies when the latest US Farm Bill has just proven that its policy is based on : Do as I say, Not as I do!!!

No Voice in the WSSD

The international civil society has faced being shut out of trade talks. It has faced increasing brutality of police at the trade summits whether it is Seattle, Genoa, Washington, DC, or Quebec. But over 6000 accredited NGOs to the World Summit on Sustainable Development came to Johannesburg with different expectations.

This morning, however, thousands of delegates were in for a shock when they were turned away from the Standton Center where the official summit is being held. The reason given: over the weekend the organizers realized that the building has capacity for holding only 6,000 individuals and the government delegates are over 5,000 in number (several corporate officials are part of government delegations). So while the WSSD Secretariat was processing endless applications of NGO accreditation, they failed to inform the civil society delegates that they will not be able to participate in the official meeting. Instead they handed out 1,500 passes, allowing first 1,500 to enter the building, enraging thousands who were treated with contempt and even threatened. To deal with delegates anger, they have now removed the passes. Instead the first 6,000 delegates will be allowed in after the gates open at 8:30 am. Government delegates (including corporate executives) however, will have access to the building at all times.

Fatima Jibrel from Horn Relief, an environmental group in Somalia, is the only civil society representative from her country to the WSSD. She was denied access to the official summit and she is demanding an explanation for this crime. Her community had fundraised to send her as the community's voice and to share the plight of pastoralists and fisherfolk people in Somalia. Another group which had brought several indigenous participants found itself outside the building as the indigenous caucus met inside without them. The civil society is indignant!

While trade dominates the agenda with focus on public and private partnerships and promotion of corporate accountability through voluntary initiatives, we know that as we are turned away from the summit, our water, our commons, our land, our food security, our planet is being sold to the biggest bully. The building did not shrink overnight. The civil society is being kept away deliberately from the negotiations!

Tomorrow the civil society's voice will be heard. Participation in the WSSD process is OUR RIGHT. The civil society present here represents millions who cannot be present in Johannesburg but will be affected by decisions which will mould the global development agenda for the next decade. For more on tomorrow's action, watch out for the latest from the WSSD.

Anuradha Mittal
Johannesburg