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WTO Blog 6: Cliff-hanger

I mentioned roosting chickens in an earlier blog, I’m not obsessed with them honestly but chickens have come up again during my time in Geneva. Ghana used to have a buoyant poultry industry but subsidised poultry from the EU has decimated the Ghanaian poultry industry.

I heard Kenneth Quartey who represents Ghanian poulty farmers say that: “If the Doha Round concludes we see little space for agriculture in Ghana and in Africa, where 60 per cent of the population relies on agriculture for its income. We just simply do not know what to do next.” This sentiment is echoed around the world by farmers and fishers, labour groups and environmentalists who all see a Doha conclusion as a complete and utter disaster.

The WTO ministerial closed today with the reaffirmation that development is still central to the Doha round and a 2010 deadline is still on the cards. It beggars belief, that the WTO has the cheek to use the word ‘development’ when its rules and policies are decimating entire sectors (e.g. chickens in Ghana and cotton in West Africa) causing massive job losses in its wake and derailing much needed poverty alleviation in developing countries.

Development is also about enabling countries to...

Cotton-Four

Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali are collectively known as the ‘cotton 4’ because they are cotton producing countries in West Africa and have been trying to the get the US to reduce their cotton subsidies for almost a decade.

The US subsidises its cotton production which leads to over-supply and subsequently a low market price for cotton. Today I heard Ambassador Samuel Amehou from Benin speak at an Africa Trade Network event about the desperation that farmers are feeling and the injustice of the situation “Farmers are losing hope for their cotton. Something needs to be done urgently otherwise our cotton sector will die and many farmers will end up in a bad situation.”

Tomorrow the WTO ministerial closes and no doubt, there will be some statement that re-affirms the Doha round to be about development. There may even be a renewed commitment to conclude the round by the end of 2010. But this cotton issue clearly illustrates the WTO negotiations are not about development, they are not about poverty alleviation and not about giving farmers in the cotton 4 a fair chance to make a sustainable living. And this is just one example of how a WTO deal would hurt the poorest people in the...

Delegates to WTO ministerial conference welcomed by singing campaigners

The WTO ministerial conference officially opened this afternoon at 3pm (2pm UK time) and as delegates from around the world were entering into the open plenary session, they were welcomed by singing trade campaigners from the Our World is Not for Sale (OWINFS) network - a network of organisations, activists and social movements worldwide fighting the current model of corporate globalisation embodied in the global trading system. The World Development Movement is a member of OWINFS and WDM trade campaigner Heidi Chow was also part of the group of singing activists. Their song was based on the tune of jingle bells and started with "no new round, turn around, the world has had enough..."

OWINFS were keen to ensure that the delegates were aware of the global protest against the WTO and the Doha round.

You can receive live updates on twitter or though Heidi's blog and read more about the WTO

WTO blog 4: Lugaw and tuyo


I need to apologise for ‘dissing’ my badge yesterday because today it proved to be a really useful friend. It got me and 30 other trade campaigners from around the world, into the ministerial conference where we were able to stand just outside of the door to the hall where the opening plenary was held. As the delegations were entering the hall, they were greeted with us singing WTO protest songs to the tune of ‘Jingle bells’ and ‘It’s been a hard day’s night’.


 

There was a great atmosphere as most of the delegates found it amusing and enjoyed the commotion. The opening session is often littered with speeches about the merits of the WTO but we wanted the delegates and press to see that there is much opposition to WTO policies across the world.

I met Pabs Rosales who is a fisherman from the Philippines (they call themselves ‘fisherfolk’ so that is how I will refer to them from here on) who leads the Progressive Fisherfolk Alliance in the Philippines.

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WTO blog 3: What's on the agenda?

Today I have been attending briefings in preparation for the ministerial conference which starts at 3pm tomorrow afternoon. I walked to the WTO building to pick up my badge which will allow me access to the ministerial as well as the NGO centre.

During a NGO briefing, we were told that we could access the open spaces at the ministerial conference (book shop, coffee bar, loos) but that the main sessions would be closed and only 42 people from NGOs (there are around 500 NGO representatives in total here) could attend the opening plenary. Most of the NGOs in the room were not happy with the lack of access but shrugged their shoulders and rolled their eyes acknowledging this is how the WTO works – unaccountable and untransparent. A Norwegian campaigner commented that when he attended the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation summit, NGOs were allowed access to the meetings and were even allowed to take the floor in some debates. The director of public affairs could only confess that the WTO were not that ‘advanced’ yet.

So my badge can get me coffee (which I don’t drink) and books (on free trade)…

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WTO blog 2: Demonstration day

The day started with the news that three members of the Korean delegation were being detained at the airport. Yoon Geum Sum, from the Korean Women Peasant Association, La Via Campesina told us how the three members were stripped naked and searched. She said: "This is a violation of human rights and a criminalisation of social movements." I've just heard that they have already been sent on a flight back home.

So the mood was dampened by this news but then we had to start getting ready for the mass demonstration which had been arranged by the local Swiss campaigners.

I was really looking forward to this demonstration as I had heard about it months ago and at WDM we have been encouraging our local groups to stage media stunts in their local areas in solidarity with the Geneva based protest today.

So I was spurred on knowing that many of our own activists and groups were doing likewise back home.

However, halfway through the march, I started noticing shop after shop had smashed windows,

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WTO blog 1: Chickens come home to roost

I arrived in Geneva at 5pm this evening (having left my home in London at 6am) and I had to quickly drop my luggage off at the hotel, work out the tram system and then get myself to a meeting with other trade campaigners from around the world. I arrived at the meeting, just as the pizza did, so not bad timing I thought.

I’m here for the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial conference which is taking place on 30 November – 2 December. Ten years on from the Seattle protests that shut down the talks in 1999, the world finds itself in a perilous state faced with global emergencies in the economy, food, climate and employment. The chickens have come home to roost. Let me explain why…The economic crisis finds its roots in the deregulation of financial markets that enabled banks and lenders to engage in reckless lending and ultimately brought the global economy to its knees. The US and EU were key drivers behind this move to deregulate, they exported their deregulation agenda and got it enshrined in the WTO rules but now it is biting them back.

Last year, world leaders agreed on the need for more regulation to prevent a reoccurrence of the financial crisis, yet there are WTO rules that actually constrain governments from regulating their financial sectors. There is...

Worldwide protest in the run up to WTO

Farmers, unions, fisherfolk and other civil society groups from around the world will be converging in Geneva for the WTO Ministerial at the end of the month. But ten years after Seattle, the struggle against the WTO has been globalised and Geneva will not be the only focus for WTO protest. Instead, activists around the world are organising protests and events in their own towns and cities to show the strength of global resistance. 

WTO protest from 2005

The World Development Movement has a long track record on campaigning on the WTO and will be organising media stunts on Saturday 28 November – in solidarity with the major civil society demonstration in Geneva on the same day. Costumed campaigners from WDM groups will be staging tug of wars across the UK.

The tug of war media stunts between farmers and corporations represents the gross power imbalances at the WTO where corporate interests drive the agenda leaving the concerns and needs of developing countries out-weighed.

The London WDM groups have joined forces to stage a tug of war media stunt around Borough market (2:30pm, near Borough market...

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