IPS | October 4, 1999 | By Farah Khan
JOHANNESBURG - Developing countries must band together to reshape the context in which the worlds' trade ministers decide whether to hold another world trade negotiating round when they meet in Seattle, U.S., later this year.
That's the word from South Africa's Trade and Industry Minister, Alec Erwin, who told a Johannesburg meeting that the Seattle Ministers meeting in November would face a new force.
"For the first time, a big block of developing countries is speaking with one voice," he says.
Whereas the Group of Eight (G-8) industrialised countries regard the developing countries as largely delinquent in their implementation of the new world trade rules first shaped in Marakesh, Morocco, and fine tuned during the Uruguay Round, Erwin says developing countries must push for a reappraisal of the impact of globalisation.
G-8 comprises Britain, the United States, Italy, Canada, Germany, Japan, France and Russia.
To focus, narrowly, on whether countries are in compliance with trade rules, or not, means that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) can lose sight of the bigger picture. And the bigger picture is that "the developing countries are the engines of growth and the key to increased output, trade and investment," said Erwin at a summit of the National Economic Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC) held in Johannesburg over the weekend.
NEDLAC is a negotiating forum where government, labour and business meet as "social partners" to hammer out economic, labour and trade policy. Erwin used the summit to brief various sectors of society about South Africa's position ahead of the Seattle ministers meeting.
South Africa is taking a lead role in shaping a continental negotiating position for Africa, although it differs from many countries whose representatives argue against another round because they say that another set of rules will be too onerous to implement.
Erwin is likely to tell the ministers meeting that "the grandfather industries in the developed world must realise that they are in decline." He points to the European agricultural industries and the American steel industries as examples of such sunset trades. Erwin argues that the developing world enjoys a cost advantage in areas like these and that the WTO should recognise this.
The view is unlikely to be a very popular one at Seattle. In South Africa, local farmers are experiencing first hand the depth of European protectionism. It has taken three years of negotiating to sculpt a trade agreement with the European Union that is still deeply protective of European farmers. South Africa farmers will, for example, have to give up using the terms "champagne" and "sherry" on their wines because the copyright is held in Europe.
American steelworkers who want to block steel imports are lobbying President Bill Clinton. Yet, argues Erwin, South Africa and Mozambique are developing a competitive advantage in steel manufacturing. Conundrums like these are going to make the Seattle meeting a tough-talking session.
South Africa, like most developing countries, will go to the Seattle meeting in a far feistier mood than it did ahead of the Uruguay Round.
Government is facing pressure from trade unions whose members have felt only the pain and not the gain of restructuring. Jobs have been shed as tariffs have come down. Customs controls are still being overhauled and investment has been slow.
"There are worrying signs in the global economy of an increase in global inequalities," says Ebrahim Patel, the labour convenor of NEDLAC and a workers representative on trade issues.
He argues that "one should try to infuse the trade negotiating process with a developmental significance," because "the implicit view that increased trade and growth will lead to a better world has not been born out by experience."
Patel argues for "positive discrimination" for developing countries in any new round of talks and has urged the South African government to push for preferential access for goods from these markets. "Those who have not had a chance must be given a chance to catch up," he says.
Trade unions in South Africa have argued that the government must slow the pace of trade liberalisation by not implementing its next tranche of tariff cuts. The view is not popular in government circles, but increasingly, the three social partners are reaching a consensus ahead of Seattle.
That consensus is that the tone of the meeting must be changed to ensure that the developing countries top the agenda; that the impact of globalisation is studied carefully and that South Africa must develop positions even on the new agenda items like commerce.
"We have to be prepared to engage on all issues," says Michael McDonald, a business representative at NEDLAC.
The overriding message at the weekend meeting was that South Africa must strike strategic alliances in Africa and with the rest of the developing world. "We have to mobilise other countries like India and China and forge alliances with business otherwise we will allow the G-8 countries to dominate," said Erwin.IPS:
