World Development Movement | September 14, 2003
The World Development Movement today condemned the EU for pursuing a Cancun ?grab what you can? Agenda in 'stiched up' negotiations as trade talks in Mexico entered their final day. Developing countries last night rejected the revised draft of the ministerial declaration.
Commenting on the revised draft declaration Barry Coates of the World Development Movement today said: ?The EU is preparing to push the ministerial meeting to the edge of collapse to get what it wants. If developing countries walk out the EU is to blame.?
?The hand-picked facilitators of the working groups have delivered a draft declaration that is a slap in the face to developing countries. They have ignored the views of a majority of WTO members in a draft that would further extend the deep inequities in trade rules. The revised draft is illegitimate. It has been arrived at through a corrupt and undemocratic process and bears no relation to the views or needs of developing countries. They have been totally ignored. The text is an insult to the developing countries in Cancun.?
?Since the last Ministerial the EU has spun the negotiations as a ?development agenda?. But their actions in Cancun expose this as a cynical ploy to get developing countries to the negotiating table. Once there the EU has, as usual, relentlessly pursued the politics of self interest.?
"If this is a development agenda, the draft should have been biased in favour of the developing world. In fact it is so tilted to the interests of the rich countries that it threatens to topple the trade talks and destroy any remaining confidence in the multilateral trade system."
Developing countries hit back late last night India declared that ?the pretence of the development dimensions of the Doha Agenda has finally been discarded?. Malaysia issued an unequivocal statement saying that its opposition the new issues is ?non-negotiable regardless of any move or developments in the other issues being discussed in the Cancun Ministerial.? India said there was no explicit consensus on any of the new issues.
Coates said: ?The overwhelming majority of developing countries in Cancun have repeatedly stated their opposed to launching negotiations on the four new issues, yet the new text, if adopted, would launch negotiations on three of them. There is no consensus of any kind. Extremely strong statements by a large number of developing countries make it clear that the tougher test of explicit consensus has already been failed.? ENDSWorld Development Movement:
