WTO accord has 50% chance
WTO accord has 50% chance
Agence France-Presse, Doha, Qatar
Developing countries give an upcoming WTO conference here only
a 50 percent chance of reaching an accord to launch a new round
of global trade talks, a senior Asian official said Wednesday.
"It is 80 percent for the big guys (in the developed world)
but only 50-50 for the little guys," said the official,
representing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
He was speaking as ministers from the World Trade
Organization were gathering here ahead of a five-day meeting
starting Friday aimed at drafting an agenda for future talks to
lower international trade barriers.
"There are many who believe the situation is as bad as before
Seattle, but the presentation is different," he said.
WTO ministers meeting in the west coast U.S. city of Seattle
in December 1999 failed to surmount deep differences on what
should and should not be included in a new round and their
gathering broke down in failure.
The ASEAN official cautioned that the harder line taken by
developing countries ahead of the conference had to be seen in
perspective, notably as each party is trying to strengthen its
position in the run-up to the actual negotiations.
But it is also true that the gap between rich and poor nations
remains wide on links between trade and the environment and trade
and investment, as well as WTO-backed rules protecting drug and
medical patents and on developing country assertions they have
yet to enjoy the benefits of previous trade liberalization
agreements.
At the same time developing countries attach great importance
to the form that the negotiations will take here, the ASEAN
official said, recalling their resentment at having been left out
of key sessions in Seattle.
"It is necessary to avoid the mistake committed in Seattle,"
he stressed. "Participation and transparency are very important."
WTO rules allow for the "green room" option, under which a
small group of delegates can convene in a room next to the office
of the WTO director general to overcome particularly complex
difficulties.
In Doha these gatherings will be open to all who wish to
attend, with participants selected to ensure that all regional
groups and interests are officially represented.
Separately in Beirut, anti-globalization campaigner Jose Bove
said here Thursday that Qatar had gone back on a promise to grant
him a visa to attend the WTO conference.
"Despite the intervention of the French foreign and trade
ministries, Qatar has still not granted me a visa, contrary to
what I was promised, when I am supposed to leave for Doha within
hours," Bove told AFP.
The 48-year-old sheep farmer and activist, who gained world
recognition when he ransacked a partly-built McDonald's
restaurant in France in 1999, has been accredited by the WTO to
represent the Peasant Confederation, a French non-governmental
organization (NGO) at the Doha gathering.
Bove, who has been attending an anti-globalization conference
of NGOs in Beirut, said he could not explain why he was being
barred from going to Qatar.
"Why are they blocking my visa now?" he demanded.
"Am I being blamed for remarks I have made in recent weeks,
here and elsewhere, suggesting the WTO is deliberately holding
its meeting in this monarchy where opposition demonstrations are
forbidden, in order to take its decisions in secret?"
Bove has become a much-admired figure in a growing movement
against a global trading mechanism seen as doing the bidding of
big business at the expense of small farmers, impoverished
factory workers and the environment.