NGOs warns against 'Singapore issues' at WTO meeting

NGOs warns against 'Singapore issues' at WTO meeting

Evi Mariani
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta

Indonesian non-governmental organizations warned that
developed countries were likely to bring again the controversial
"Singapore issues" to the negotiation table during the incoming
World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial summit in Cancun,
Mexico.

The NGOs thus called on the Indonesian delegation as well as
those from other developing countries to resist any move to raise
the issues, which they claimed would hurt the interests of poor
and developing countries.

The issues pertain to investment, competition policy,
government procurement and trade facilitation.

The issues first emerged during the first WTO ministerial
summit in Singapore in 1996.

"Those issues were brought up by the European Union and the
United States during the third ministerial summit in Seattle in
1999. [However] the issues were not brought into the talks due to
resistance mostly from developing countries," the NGOs said.

For example, the NGOs said, once a country implements
transparency in its government procurement, it had to allow large
foreign corporations to participate in procurement bids. Once the
big companies are given the freedom to participate in the bids,
the chance for local companies of developing countries to win the
bids will be smaller, the NGO said in its position paper during a
two-day meeting here last week.

About 75 NGOs from across the country signed the paper,
including the Institute for Global Justice (IGJ), the Federation
of Indonesia's Farmers Unions (FSPI), the Indonesian Consumers
Foundation (YLKI), the National Front for Indonesian Workers'
Struggle (FNPBI), the Indonesian Women's Coalition (KPI), and
Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi).

The NGOs made the paper in anticipation of the WTO ministerial
summit scheduled from Sept. 10 to Sept. 14 in Cancun.

In the paper, the NGOs supported the Indonesian government's
opposition of the Singapore issues.

According to the paper, WTO has mostly benefited developed
countries, while Indonesia, as a developing country, has mostly
bowed to such countries' interests by enacting several laws to
boost liberalization at the expense of the poor.

The NGOs demanded that the government revise the law on
intellectual property rights, saying the law will undermine the
government's position at WTO talks when negotiating against the
patent on living things.

"The patent on microorganisms will render farmers in
developing countries dependent on seed manufacturers," said the
paper.

The NGOs also urged the government to fight for people's
access to affordable lifesaving drugs.

Giant pharmaceutical companies in developed countries have
insisted that the international community respect patents on
their medicines. However, patented drugs have proven to be
expensive, whereas fatal conditions like AIDS are rampant in poor
countries.

The NGOs also called on WTO members to exclude agriculture and
food from their talks on import tariff reduction, saying both are
not merely trade commodities but also linked to the lives of
farmers.

"We urge the government to stick to its stance in proposing
the exclusion of staple foods from talks on import tariff
reduction," the paper states.

They said a reduction in import tariffs of staple food would
have a negative impact on the lives of Indonesia's marginalized
farmers.

Indonesian NGOs' stance on WTO issues

1. Give all people access to affordable lifesaving drugs.
2. The government should revise the law on intellectual property
rights.
3. The government should maintain its stance on the exclusion of
staple foods from import tariff reduction.
4. Agriculture and food should be excluded from WTO talks.
5. Developing countries should continue to keep WTO from
regulating investment policies.
6. The government should continue blocking negotiations on
competition policies. The government should protect small
enterprises at home against foreign competitors.
7. The government should keep resisting efforts to bring trade
facilitation into the WTO agenda. Under a trade facilitation
agreement, each country should simplify its trade procedures.
8. The government should resist efforts to bring the issue of
transparency in government procurement into the WTO agenda.
9. WTO should stop holding closed meetings involving only a
limited number of members.