NAMA talks time bomb

27 July 2007

A time bomb is ticking away in Geneva, where the Non Agriculture Market Access (NAMA) negotiations have reached a critical and extremely dangerous stage. If we let it explode, it could devastate the lives of millions of people throughout South Africa and the whole of the developing world.

 

The proposed reductions in tariffs currently on the table would, if adopted, have a deadly effect on developing countries. They would seriously restrict our capacity to industrialise, expand employment and raise living standards. They would throw us back into abject poverty and underdevelopment.

 

We would be even more at the mercy of the rich and powerful nations which used to enslave us as colonialists and continue to dominate our economies. They want the South to remain exporters of raw materials to the North and consumers of products and services from the North, so that they pose no threat to their domination of the manufacturing, finance and service sectors which generate the biggest profits.

 

The last WTO round of trade talks were originally supposed to improve the lives of the world's poor and promote the needs and interests of workers in developing countries. There were hopes that developed countries would use the round to promote development, cut the subsidies that protect them from competition from poor nations, and open their markets to the developing countries with a view to dealing with the historic imbalances in world trade.

 

The reality was an abysmal failure. Through divide-and-rule tactics, bullying, political blackmail, throwing tantrums and using such other intimidating tactics, the developed countries frustrated all attempts to make trade more accessible to the poor countries.

 

Now the talks are moving towards the diametrically opposite direction. The rich Northern nations are trying to stop developing countries from using the very trade tools that they themselves have used, and continue to use, to protect their economies and manipulate world trade in their interests.

 

They refuse to liberalise their huge subsidies to their agricultural sectors and increase access to goods from the poor countries. (As COSATU said at the time, given that over a billion of the world citizens live on less than $2 US per day, "it would be better to be a cow in Japan being subsidised for $7 per day, to being a human being living in Africa".)

 

Yet at the same time these rich countries insist that developing Southern nations open up their own economies to subsidised products and services from the North. We are being asked to pay a terrible price in tariff reductions in non-agricultural goods - manufacturing, fishing, forestry and minerals.

 

But they are not going to get away with it without a fight. The 'NAMA 11' countries - South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Namibia, Egypt, India, Tunisia, Indonesia and the Philippines - are mounting a counter-attack. They came together after the developed countries closed ranks in October 2005 and proposed an unfair outcome that would have required developing countries to cut their average tariffs by 65-70% whilst the developed countries only cut their average tariffs by 25%.

 

NAMA 11 challenged developed countries to be aware that the needs of developing countries are different and have been largely ignored by the trading system for more than 50 years. As they say in a statement:

 

"We cannot so easily forget the promise made in Doha by all WTO members to make this round a development round. The current draft text seeks to re-interpret the mandates of the Doha round, that has called for less than full reciprocity in reduction commitments by developing countries, by asking developing countries to contribute disproportionately, compared to the contributions requested from developed countries. The draft text has also undermined an agreement reached at the Hong Kong ministerial meeting to ensure that the level of ambition of the NAMA negotiations shall be comparable to that in agriculture."

 

They express their alarm that the range of topics that can be raised in the current round of talks is narrow and largely excludes the positions of the NAMA 11 group and  therefore precludes any real negotiation".

 

COSATU and ten other unions from the NAMA 11 countries also recently came together to support their governments against these unfair demands being made on their countries. They are further supported by a number of Latin American trade unions whose economies will be affected in a similar way as the NAMA 11 group.

 

In a letter to the NAMA 11 countries' ambassadors to the WTO, the unions have expressed serious concern at the draft NAMA modalities that were tabled by the Chair of the NAMA negotiations, Ambassador Don Stephenson, on 17^th July. These would have serious effects on employment and industrial development in our countries. They will result in cuts in applied tariffs, with hardly any flexibility to shield our sensitive and labour-intensive industries. They will further increase already high unemployment and underemployment levels and will in many cases seriously damage prospects of industrial development and growth in our economies.

 

The unions are extremely concerned at the pressure being put on our governments to agree on these modalities as a basis for further negotiations, and strongly support a decision not to rush into any agreement on them, given that there is no reason to agree to them due to pressure of artificial deadlines.

 

The unions therefore called upon governments:

-         Not to accept the NAMA modalities as proposed in the Chair's text as the basis for further negotiations;

-         To demand a revision of the NAMA modalities based on the fact that they are unfair, imbalanced and detrimental to employment and development;

-         To maintain unity in the NAMA 11 group in the face of pressure that will be exercised on the NAMA 11 group for the acceptance of the current draft modalities as a basis for further negotiations.

 

Given the scale of the problem, the NAMA 11 unions urge and expect unions from developed countries to show active solidarity with their fellow workers in the South. This is a defining moment when we need to show a united front as labour in favour of development.

 

COSATU has appealed to the Board of the International Trade Union Confederation to support the Nama 11 trade union position and to lobby national governments and the European Union to back this common trade union position.

 

Ultimately the only way to change the balance of forces in favour of the developing countries is to build on the foundations laid during the last three ministerial meetings. The developing countries can only resist if they build big, effective and well co-ordinated alliances. On their own they are far too weak to resist.

 

The cooperation between the delegations to the ministerial summits from South Africa's government, trade unions and NGOs, and others from both developed and developing countries holds huge potential to broaden the frontiers of resistance and pursue a progressive agenda. COSATU will strive to ensure that these alliances are strengthened and coordinated.

 

Our challenge is to ensure that we are continually vigilant on how the process is taken forward. We can certainly expect the developed countries' bullying tactics to continue. We can also expect the WTO processes to continue to favour developed countries with greater resources and opportunities to engage.

 

We have to ensure that we continue to build our coalitions now, mobilise for development and against a narrow market access and support our governments' developmental agenda. If we do not do that, any potential future victory we may have gained will be lost, as bureaucrats succumb to pressure.

 

The consequences of failure, for millions of people, will be catastrophic. As the NAMA 11 governments say: "We represent millions of people in developing countries who have high hopes for a development outcome in this round and cannot afford to allow an unfair and disproportionate outcome in the round to create massive unemployment and de-industrialization in our countries."

 

The NAMA 11 Trade Unions are:

Argentina: CGT and CTA

• Brazil: CUT
• Venezuela: UNT
• South Africa: COSATU, FEDUSA and NACTU
• Namibia: NUNW
• Tunisia: UGTT
• India: HMS
• Indonesia: KSBSI and CITU
• Philippines: TUCP