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.