Uganda's president and the president-elect of the Dominican Republic insisted Wednesday that developing countries must receive social benefits from free trade instead of simply opening Third World markets to multinational corporations.
Addressing delegates at a 180-nation United Nations trade and development conference, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said poor countries must be assured better market access to developed economies and financing from their rich counterparts for education and infrastructure improvements.
Market access is a key issue in ongoing talks to liberalize trade around the world, but many delegates at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development say poor countries should not drop trade barriers unless rich countries commit to helping the developing world eliminate poverty.
"We cannot sanction a trading system that produces advantages for some and adversities for others," Museveni said.
Negotiators for the 147-nation World Trade Organization are trying to reach a framework by July for a landmark trade deal that would slash subsidies, tariffs and other barriers for rich and poor countries alike.
UNCTAD, which meets every four years, does not have the power of the WTO to negotiate and enforce treaties. But the two groups cover many of the same issues.
President-elect Leonel Fernandez of the Dominican Republic said developing countries must build better trading relationships among themselves and with the world's most industrialized nations.
But Fernandez, who takes office Aug. 16, said poor countries can't depend entirely on aid or trade from rich nations to solve all of the Third World's problems.
Latin American countries, he said, must open their markets to each other by reducing tariffs and find a way to cooperate more to help the region's governments improve business conditions and raise living standards.
"We need regional integration, development of our own information technology and education for growth," he said. "We can in this way accelerate our development."
Museveni said African countries can export their cocoa to the European Union without facing any tariffs, but that chocolate exports are taxed before entering the EU.
"The message is clear: They don't want you to move up. They don't want you to be creative," he said. "Unfortunately, we also do this in trade among developing countries.
Although cancellation of poor countries' foreign debt is a recurring theme among African nations, Museveni said debts shouldn't be forgiven unless accompanied by detailed plans on how to build trade and industry and create jobs.
"Debt cancellation is the newest song on the hit parade," he said. "But what do you do when you cancel the poor man's debt without giving him the means to earn a living? He will simply contract new debt."
Humanitarian and environmental groups at the forum on Wednesday accused the United States of pressuring UNCTAD member countries to water down language in a draft conference document that addresses corporate responsibility in the developing world.
Oxfam International, Greenpeace International, Third World Network and Friends of the Earth International want language in the document requiring multinational corporations to be held accountable for promoting social development when they set up shop in poor countries.
Without such a clause in the U.N. document, corporations could be tempted to flout labor laws and cause environmental damage when new free trade agreements give them more reason to start operating in developing countries, said Oxfam spokesman Sander van Bennekom.
The change in the document "is a signal to companies that they can behave in a way so they are not answerable to the international community," he said. "It could lead to irresponsible behavior by companies and no way to regulate them."
Terry Miller, U.S. deputy assistant secretary for international organizations, denied the new language had been watered down and said it was the result of careful negotiations by UNCTAD member countries.
He added that the United States is opposed to an international corporate responsibility code because corporations must obey laws in the countries where they operate and extend benefits with their presence.
"Corporations already provide incredible social and economic benefits: Jobs, training, tax revenues, not to mention the goods and services they provide," he said. "To expect corporations to do a lot more than that can be dangerous because it can cause them to simply withdraw their capital."
UNCTAD last held its last forum in Bangkok, Thailand, in 2000 just months after the WTO's attempt to launch a new round of trade negotiations in Seattle collapsed amid violent anti-globalization street protests.Chattanooga Times Free Press:
