International Trade Daily | August 29, 2001 | By John Nagel
MEXICO CITY--Non-governmental organizations in Mexico are charging that authorities here are organizing an informal conference of World Trade Organization ministers with little transparency in an apparent effort to limit opportunities for anti-globalization advocates to organize. A main complaint is that Mexican authorities will wait until just hours before the beginning of an informal conference of some 18 WTO ministers Aug. 30 before announcing the venue for the event.
The informal conference is being held in an attempt to smooth over differences between WTO members in advance of the Fourth Ministerial Conference to be held Nov. 9-13 in Doha, Qatar. The Qatar meeting will determine if there is a new comprehensive round of WTO trade negotiations.
Key to Post-Doha Agenda
Michael Moore, director general of the WTO, is slated to attend the Mexico City conference. The conference will also be attended by trade representatives for Australia, Brazil, Canada, the European Union, Egypt, the United States, Hong Kong, India, Jamaica, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Qatar, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Tanzania, and Uruguay. Mexico says that the conference is necessary due to the lack of advances in preparatory work being carried out in Geneva in for the Doha meeting. Key WTO members remain divided on issues such as agriculture and the environment, and whether there should be a new round of trade talks.
The Mexico conference could be the key to establishing a post-Doha agenda for further liberalization of global trade through a new round of comprehensive talks ... or not.
WTO director-general Michael Moore said in a July 30 statement on Doha that "a failure to reach consensus on a forward work program that would advance the objectives of the multilateral trading system, particularly in the light of the earlier failure at Seattle, would lead many to question the value of the WTO as a forum for negotiation. It would certainly condemn us to a long period of irrelevance, because it will not be any easier next year, or the year after."
The WTO's Third Ministerial Conference in Seattle, in 1999, was marred by violent demonstrations, and no accord was reached for a new round of trade-liberalizing talks.
Erratic Information Release, NGOs Say
However, NGOs in Mexico say that, despite the importance of the Mexico conference in prepping for Doha, the "mini ministerial" is being organized with little transparency, and that the failure to define the venue of the conference in a timely fashion limits their ability to stage protests. They say that the spotty release of information related to the event in Mexico is designed to downplay its importance and impede the participation of interest groups here.
A spokesperson with Mexico's economy ministry, the Secretaria de Economia, which is charged with organizing the event, told BNA Aug. 28 that the venue for the Aug. 31 event may not be announced until Aug. 30.
In addition, information related to the event has been sporadically released. Foreign journalists in Mexico received notice of the event through a news statement transmitted via e-mail the evening of Aug. 23. But the same news release was not distributed to Mexico's domestic press until Aug. 27--four full days later.
Homero Aridjis, president of the Grupo de los Cien (Group of 100), an important environmental NGO in Mexico, told BNA "This is a very worrying sign from the government of president Fox."
He added, "Fox said in his campaign that his government was going to be a transparent and open, with more information. But the reality is that this WTO event is being carried out in a very clandestine and hidden manner. This lack of information is designed to limit the participation of civil society and to keep its voice from being heard." Fox took office in December, 2000 after ousting the former ruling PRI (Partido de la Revolucion Institucional) after seven decade of uninterrupted rule.
The director of Amnesty International in Mexico, Christian Rojasm, told BNA that "under these conditions, we are worried about getting human rights issues on the agenda. These closed-door meetings prevent the discussion of human rights issues, such as trade in small arms and trade among nations which abuse human rights."
He added, "We see that there are efforts to limit the participation of civil society in this conference. But, even if the Economy Ministry won't say where the meeting will take place, people will find out, and the situation will be worse than if the information were made public in the beginning. There has to be a space for organizations that represent civil society."
Maria Atilano, executive coordinator of the Red de Accion Mexicana Contra el Libre Comercio (Mexican Network Against Free Trade) told BNA that "what we want to see from the WTO is transparency. So far, we haven't seen it. Obviously, if nobody knows where the event is, this impedes efforts to make our voice heard."
No Special Security Measures
Meanwhile, despite the rash of anti-globalization protest which have routinely taken place at gatherings of global leaders since Seattle, in Mexico, the upcoming conference of trade ministers is being treated like a routine event. A spokesperson at Mexico City's Ministry for Public Security told BNA that the ministry was unaware that the WTO conference is taking place, and has planned no special measures to deal with possible protests.
Similarly, the Economy Ministry spokesman told BNA that "no special preparations" have been made for increased security at the event, and denied that preparations for the event are being made in secret.
However, the spokesperson added "we still don't know where the conference will take place."
Reporters seeking credentials to cover the WTO conference are being told to wait for a telephone call late Aug. 30, "which will give further instructions" for attending the Aug. 31 gathering.
Copyright c 2001 by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., Washington D.C.International Trade Daily:
