By Gustavo Capdevila Inter Press Service October 10, 2001
GENEVA, A group of prominent non-governmental organizations (NGOs) based in industrialized countries sent a sharply worded letter to the World Trade Organization (WTO) charging that it "is facing a fundamental crisis of legitimacy" which requires comprehensive institutional reforms.
The groups critical of the WTO are the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF, also known as World Wildlife Fund), based in Gland, Switzerland, Friends of the Earth International (FoE), based in Amsterdam, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), from Minneapolis, ActionAid (London) and Oxfam International, with offices in Washington and Oxford.
The NGOs' message -- presented to the WTO earlier this week and later released as an open letter -- expresses concern about the lack of transparency, both internally and externally, in the global trade body, said WWF representative Aimee Gonzales.
WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell acknowledged that some of the matters outlined by the six civil society organizations are valid, saying that problems do exist as far as internal transparency. The NGOs' letter contains criticisms aimed at WTO director- general Mike Moore and specific members of the Secretariat.
The text expresses concern about the way Moore and members of the staff "have pushed the trade liberalization agenda and the idea of launching a new trade round at Doha (Qatar)" during the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the WTO in November.
This attitude on the part of WTO officials, "despite opposition from many developing country members, raises questions on the consistency and neutrality of the WTO Secretariat in this so-called 'member-driven' organization."
Rockwell responded that the WTO leader has said that "without a comprehensive program of negotiations the difficult political questions (confronting the organization's members) will not be resolved."
Sources at the Geneva-based WTO commented that the NGOs had taken the easy route, alleging that the groups were arguing that 'we don't need negotiations, we need to change the rules."
On this point, Moore says rules cannot be changed in a substantive way without first engaging in negotiations.
The NGOs repeated the opinion of some trade negotiators who have complained of the "Anglo-Saxon" atmosphere of the WTO, "in part the result of the very weak representation of developing countries in the composition of the Secretariat staff."
The WTO has 512 people on its staff, 410 of whom come from industrialized countries, and just 94 from developing countries, says the letter.
The NGOs' figures are apparently correct, said WTO sources, though the vast majority of the employees are support staff, secretaries, clerks, chauffeurs and other assistants who are generally hired locally.
But they admitted that there is an imbalance among the 150 policy-oriented professionals of the WTO that favors industrialized countries.
Of the 26 directors, the highest rank among the permanent staff, only six represent developing countries: Brazil, Chile, Egypt, Lebanon, Nigeria and Uruguay.
And the numbers for women in the trade organization's Secretariat are even worse, as there are only three, said an official who requested his name withheld.
The WTO is currently experiencing a period of greater tensions as it prepares for its ministerial conference in the Qatar capital, Nov. 9-13.
The internal climate at the WTO is marked by the differences separating the industrialized countries, which favor convening a new round of multilateral trade negotiations, from the developing countries, which generally seek the full implementation of previous accords before moving forward with new treaties.
The letter from the six NGOs maintains that the current processes within the agency reflect "systemic inequalities and imbalances (and) mean that the WTO has not effectively lived up to its development mandate."
WTO negotiations are dominated by a handful of powerful nations and many delegations continue to be excluded from informal consultations, says the open letter.
Developing countries are at a disadvantage in the WTO because the institution acts without transparency in setting the agenda for debate in small group meetings.
Gonzales, of the WWF, said the diplomatic missions of developing countries in Geneva have an average of 3.51 staff, compared to 7.38 for the industrialized countries' delegations here.
Furthermore, there are 20 WTO members -- least developed and developing nations -- that do not have permanent missions in Geneva.
With the rise in the number and frequency of WTO meetings as a result of the accelerated negotiations in the lead-up to the Doha conference, the participation of developing countries has suffered, say the NGOs.
Rockwell, with a different interpretation of the situation, stated that the WTO has increased the number of meetings in a bid to expand the information available to member states and to ensure greater transparency.
As far as external transparency, the civil society groups said "trade policy cannot be left in the hands of a few to decide for the majority."
Trade ministers often represent or listen to only certain business interests, which results in policies that "are unbalanced or otherwise lack legitimacy."
To remedy this situation, the six NGOs propose that those affected by trade and its consequences -- whether farmers, women producers, parliamentarians, and ordinary citizens -- must have a say in drafting trade rules and policies.
The groups are calling on the delegations to the November ministerial conference to instruct the General Council (the maximum governing body of the WTO) to draw up a broad-based work program on institutional reform.
Changes should cover internal issues such as capacity building, meetings, decision-making, and the reform of dispute settlement measures.
The modifications should also treat external issues like NGO accreditation, cooperation mechanisms with inter-governmental organizations, parliamentary oversight, and national consultation guidelines, said the civil society groups in their letter.:
