From: Shefali Sharma To: NGOs Planning to Participate in the Cancun Ministerial
The WTO has started to send letters to all NGOs who have applied for official registration to the Cancun Ministerial. These NGOS MUST SEND THE REGISTRATION FORM BACK BY REGULAR MAIL TO THE WTO BY JUNE 30 MIDNIGHT GMT. They have decided to register only 3 per NGO as opposed to the four they stated earlier.
I just attended a briefing today at the Mexican Mission on arrangements for Cancun and they told us that while all three NGO reps of a particular NGO will have badges, ONLY ONE NGO REP OF THAT ORGANIZATION CAN BE IN THE CONVENTION CENTER WHERE THE MEETING IS TAKING PLACE. This means that they will issue an extra "sur badge" that will have to be shared by the three NGO participants and only one of them can go into the Convention Center at a time. This is extremely problematic. No such limitations will be placed on the press.
Moreover, NGOs and Press are allowed into the main plenary if there is space, but the entire second and third floor where the real meetings will take place will be restricted to Ministers and delegations only. Thus, we can only be on the ground floor and its surrounding facilities.
We asked them about the capacity of the convention center and they told us that above 5000 would be a fire hazard. They are expecting about 3000 delegates, about 3000 press and about 3000 NGO reps (about 900 NGOs will officially register). I guess the WTO rejected about 154 organizations on the basis that they were "for profit"...i.e. even fair trade associations, since they are selling something. They said they had to draw a line and any companies or organizations selling products was rejected. But industry associations or affiliated charities were accepted. Thus in the case of Pharmaceutical companies for instance, their associations were accepted, but not the companies themselves. I asked them why they picked a convention center with such limited space because a Mexican source told me that there were larger convention centers there, but the WTO chose the one that was smaller. The WTO cites costs concerns and other logistical matters for doing this. We told them to expect a lot of dissatisfaction regarding the above "sur badge."
Other info:
The NGO center will open from am to Midnight. They are blocking off 4 hotels (Hyatt, Camino Royale, Crystal, Coral Beach)in the security zone for registered participants. Once we get our registration form, they will give us a registration number that we use to block our three rooms. We can block out more rooms than three if we are out of the security zone at the special rates they are giving registered participants. They are encouraging us to start booking hotels now. The Mexican representative said they were trying to make arrangements for non-registered participants as well. They will post news bulletins each day of the Ministerial on their website with an update on all of the events (official and unofficial) taking place around Cancun.
The website again is: www.omcmexico.org.mx
The Mexican Government's NGO coordinator is Melba Pria: mpria@omcmexico.org.mx But all access issues vis a vis registration should be directed to the WTO itself since they are the ones making the rules on where registered participants can go.
cheers,
Shefali Sharma Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), Geneva Office 15 Rue de Savoises, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland
tel 41 22 789 0724 fax 41 22 789 0733Wall Street Journal:
