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Trade, Finance, and Governance Battle Continues at Earth Summit

Daily Report from the WSSD, Day Two

August 27, 2002

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Trade, Finance, and Governance Battle Continues at Earth Summit

Issues such as subsidies, particularly agriculture subsidies, continue to be a quagmire in the talks at the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Addressing a briefing for nongovernmental organizations, organized by the US delegation, Jim Moseley, Deputy Secretary, U.S. Dept.of Agriculture, praised the 2002 Farm Bill for being a 'conservation bill.' He did not address how the new bill has been criticized by its trading partners for it increases agricultural subsidies to the detriment of family farmers around the world.

Joining him was Emmy Simmons, Assistant Administrator, USAID, who talked about the new U.S. initiative to eradicate hunger in Africa and Jennifer Haverkamp, Assistant U.S.Trade Representative. When questioned about the farm bill and its impact on family farmers, both Mr. Moseley and Ms. Jennifer Haverkamp, praised the U.S. farm policy that "promotes development in the Third World." Further questioning resulted in them openly declaring that proposals to protect agriculture and farmer communities in the Third World, such as the Development Box, are non-starters for the U.S.

Emmy Simmons was questioned on the U.S. initiative on eradicating hunger in Africa given the recent push to dump contaminated food aid on African countries and the impact it might have on the African economy and its agricultural exports to Europe. The official briefing was then opened to the industry and Val Giddings, Vice President of Biotech Industry Organization, was asked by the U.S. delegation to respond to the civil society. Their response, "USDA and regulatory agencies have approved and tested these crops, and we are not proving poisonous food aid to Africa," completely ignoring the issue of food sovereignty. Ms. Simmons also added that it was the responsibility of the African governments to ensure that food aid is eaten and not planted, if there were concerns of "contaminating" exports from Africa to Europe.

Joint presentations by the official delegation and biotech industry to promote biotechnology, against the wishes of communities, countries - this is what private and public partnerships look like! Anuradha Mittal, Co-director of Food First will debate Mr. Val Giddings from Biotech Industry Organization on August 30, on a T.V. show, Down to Earth, which will be broadcast simultaneously on prime time on 10 public stations throughout Africa.

People United Will Never be Defeated

The fight for access to main sessions of the World Summit on Sustainable Development continued this morning. Accredited NGOs had lined up before 8 am, hoping to make it in before the doors were closed on them. The long lines, lack of communication, and waste of time angered NGOs. To pacify the enraged NGOs, U.N. liaison staff called a meeting this morning. However, some of the NGOs threatened a walk into the building if denied access.

To deal with this situation, an urgent meeting was set up with Mr. Nitin Desai, Secretary General of the conference and Mr. Abdul Minty from South African Foreign Affairs Dept. A seven-member NGO delegation was selected to meet with him. This delegation included Food First's Anuradha Mittal, who had organized the walk in by NGOs who were being kept out.

After a whole day of negotiations, it was agreed that no more 1400 secondary passes would be issued to the NGOs. Instead the gates will remain open to ensure civil society's participation during this week and more entrances will be set up to ensure that participants are not caught in long lines. Media played a key role in securing this free access -- as BBC, CNN and local, national, and international press focused on our demand, "we want access to the summit."

Anuradha Mittal
Johannesburg