wo years ago in Seattle, demonstrators in the streets brought previously esoteric negotiations of government ministers at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to the world’s eye as never before. Less noticed, inside the meetings, African trade ministers denounced the lack of transparency in the proceedings. “African countries are being marginalized and generally excluded on issues of vital importance for our peoples and their future,” they declared in a public statement. The next day the summit adjourned with no agreement, as developing countries rebelled at being pushed aside, and Europe and the U.S. also failed to resolve their own differences.
Demonstrators will be sparse at the tightly controlled site of the Seattle sequel in Doha, Qatar. The focus on security threats–not from demonstrations but from international terrorism–is likely to overshadow the substantive issues at stake. But these issues, cloaked by the technical language of international trade negotiations, are vital to the fate of ordinary people around the world, and particularly in Africa and other developing regions. Since Seattle, African governments have joined with other developing nations in sustained efforts to develop common positions and present them to the WTO. African and international nongovernmental organizations have followed the negotiations closely, and prepared detailed critiques. Rich country governments and the WTO have promised greater openness.
Despite all this, final proposals presented at the last minute by the WTO’s inner club as the basis for consensus almost totally disregard these critiques. Instead of dialogue, the U.S. and other rich countries have opted for raw political power. African countries are under enormous bilateral pressure to go along with the rich countries’ agenda for a new round of trade talks on their terms, and to accept vague promises to deal with African concerns later.
Whether or not this power play results in imposing a false “consensus” declaration in Doha, the contentious issues will not go away. Below are the points of most concern to African and other developing countries, as concisely and in as non-technical language as possible.