Multilateralism at stake in Johannesburg

Multilateralism at stake in Johannesburg

Emil Salim, Chairman, Preparatory Committee Meeting,
World Summit on Sustainable Development, Jakarta

On Sept. 1 in Johannesburg, President Megawati Soekarnoputri
is scheduled to submit the conclusions of the Bali preparatory
meeting for the World Summit on Sustainable Development in June
to the summit host South Africa's President Thabo Mbekti.

Much of the document prepared in Bali, the "Implementation
Program", has been agreed upon. Out of 625 paragraphs of the
Implementation Program document a total of 469 paragraphs have
been approved leaving 156 paragraphs still to be negotiated in
Johannesburg by ministers, prior to the World Summit attended by
many heads of government.

There are mainly five pending issues that need to be resolved.
First, is the continued acceptance of the Rio Principle dealing
with "common but differentiated responsibility." Certain
developed countries view that this principle only applies to
global environmental degradation, while developing countries
argue that it also applies in the international pursuit of
sustainable development. Several developed countries flatly
reject all references to this principle in the Implementation
Program document.

The Rio Principle 7 reads: "States shall cooperate in a spirit
of global partnership to conserve, protect and restore the health
and integrity of the Earth's ecosystem. In view of the different
contributions to global environmental degradation, states have
common but differentiated responsibilities."

The developed countries, it continues, acknowledge the
responsibility in the international pursuit of sustainable
development given their society's pressure on the global
environment and of the technologies and financial resources they
command.

Behind this issue is the rejection by the industrialized
countries to carry the burden of "differentiated
responsibilities" in terms of financial burden and technology
transfer from developed to the developing countries.

Meanwhile developing countries claim that industrialized
countries have been able to raise their income at the expense of
the carbon dioxide emissions that affects global warming and the
sea level rise. People in developing countries in the tropics
mostly suffer from the air pollution created by energy,
transportation and industry that support industrial development
in developed countries.

To meet the challenges of development in this 21st century, a
new pattern of development is required, namely sustainable
development that merges social, environmental and economic
considerations into the mainstream of development.

The program to implement sustainable development has been
agreed upon in Bali. It covers the social dimension of
eradicating poverty, the economic dimension of changing the
unsustainable pattern of consumption and production and the
environmental dimension of protecting and managing natural
resources and the environment in a sustainable way.

The problem remains in getting countries to agree on
implementation. This leads us to the second pending issue, namely
"means of implementation in terms of finance."

In Monterrey, Mexico, the International Conference on
Financing Development (March 2002) agreed to raise funds for
development. Verbal commitments were made, but no figures were
mentioned in the Monterrey Consensus.

In Bali the intention was to pin down these various verbal
commitments and to link them with the needs of financing the
"Implementation Program." But this was deemed as "going beyond
Monterrey," and as such was not agreeable to some developed
countries. Apparently, what is mentioned in speeches by heads of
states is not considered binding, especially if it refers to
financing development in developing countries.

The third pending issue is the "means of implementation in
terms of trade." Trade ministers agreed in last year's WTO
Conference in Doha, Qatar, on a new round of trade negotiations.
But before negotiations can take place, an important decision on
eliminating subsidies on agricultural products is a constraint:
Several countries are already involved in raising subsidies in
agriculture that make it difficult for developing countries to
compete in the developed countries' markets.

While there is hesitation among developed countries to raise
development assistance for developing countries to the amount of
roughly US$ 50 billion, it is considered normal to extend
subsidies to the agricultural sector to $350 billion and thus
depriving the developing countries access to the developed
countries' markets. This explains why developing countries
endorse the slogan "better trade than aid."

The fourth pending issue has to do with globalization. The
question is how to make globalization workable if the playing
field in the global economy is uneven.

Developing countries are trapped in producing and exporting
only raw material commodities, while these commodities are
processed in developed countries using import duties as the
convenient vehicle for preventing processed commodities from
developing countries to move into developed countries.

The fifth pending issue is related to the rejection by many
developed countries of an action plan with time-bound targets.
What is an action plan without a time dimension for
implementation?

These then are the five pending issues that need to be
resolved in Johannesburg. Behind these issues looms the
reluctance of working together in solving our common problems.
There are efforts to tackle these issues. But the way it is being
done is not in a multilateral spirit. Developing countries are
not treated equally in meeting global challenges of development.

Everybody likes to speak about "good governance", stressing
the need for clean governments, rule of law, transparency,
democracy and accountability. It is usually addressed to
developing countries. But the same principles do not apply when
they are requested of international agencies, such as the World
Bank and IMF where the rule of "one-dollar-one-vote" prevails.

Different treatment is obvious when developing countries ask
for market access into the developed countries' market, just as
developed countries demand access to developing countries in a
free market economy in line with the "Washington Consensus".

The world is shrinking into a global village where everybody
needs everybody. In Johannesburg, the heads of state of
practically all countries will deliberate on the issues of
sustainable development.

This deliberation will only be successful if our world leaders
recognize that in Johannesburg what is at stake is not only
issues of sustainable development as such, but by how we are able
to solve these issues by working together, the rich and the poor,
the developed and the developing countries in a spirit of
togetherness. In Johannesburg, what looms as the main dominant
issue is whether a spirit of multilateralism can prevail.