admin | Focus on the Global South

Focus on the road to Hong Kong #5

Posted by admin | Dec 13, 2005 | Trade and Investment

WTO MINISTERIAL BEGINS AMID PROTESTS INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE HK CONVENTION CENTRE. WALDEN BELLO DEBATES DEPUTY DIRECTOR GENERAL NEGOTIATION UPDATEWAR BY SEVERAL MEANS – BOMBS AND THE WTOKONG YE SAI MAUFLUVIAL PARADE

Update on the Negotiations

Posted by admin | Dec 13, 2005 | Trade and Investment

12th December: There was a short meeting of the Core Group on services on the 12th attended by 8 delegations. (The Core Group comprises of 15 countries in total – US, EU, Japan and Canda, Australia, Brazil, Egypt,...

FLUVIAL PARADE

Posted by admin | Dec 13, 2005 | Trade and Investment

More than 100 fisher folk from South Asian countries staged a fluvial parade in two boats in the Hong Kong Sea. Their main demand is to keep fisheries out of the purview of WTO and NAMA.

As a result of the reduction of tariffs in their countries, they are already facing many problems with excessive imports of fish. The inclusion of fisheries in NAMA and any further reduction in tariff for fisheries would be disastrous for their livelihood and food security.

WTO MINISTERIAL BEGINS AMID PROTESTS INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE HK CONVENTION CENTRE

Posted by admin | Dec 13, 2005 | Trade and Investment

As the march from Victoria Park reached the Wan Chai cargo area next to the Convention Centre, around 75 Korean farmers jumped into the sea and attempted to swim to the Convention Centre before being picked by up the coast guard. They were cheered by the colorful and noisy crowd. Clearly over-reacting, the Hong Kong police immediately cordoned off the streets surrounding the convention centre and the entry to the bay area.

WAR BY SEVERAL MEANS – BOMBS AND THE WTO

Posted by admin | Dec 13, 2005 | 1Post Types

The ongoing talks at the World Trade Organization demonstrate how free trade and other neo-liberal economic policies are imposed on people through unequal and undemocratic negotiations. But there is another way: by bombs.This...

The Development Package: Deceptive and Dangerous

Posted by admin | Dec 13, 2005 | Trade and Investment

With the negotiations stalemated in the key areas, the WTO Secretariat and the big trade powers are using a scheme of pushing through a “development package” to pass off the current ministerial conference as a success – when the Hong Kong WTO Ministerial is by definition, already a failure.

The idea is to gain consensus for the development package now, then push for agreement on the more controversial areas of services, agriculture, and non-agricultural market access in a more protracted process extending over the next few months, possibly culminating in another ministerial by the middle of 2006.

WTO OPENING CEREMONY TOLD: “WTO KILLS PEASANTS’

Posted by admin | Dec 13, 2005 | Trade and Investment

Over forty unannounced protestors from across the world joined together inside the opening ceremony of the WTO Ministerial in Hong Kong to protest at the WTO’s ongoing drive towards liberalisation.

“We have seen ten years of deceit under the WTO. We are protesting because we cannot continue to watch the WTO take away the lives and livelihoods of farmers, peasants and workers across the world,’ said Walden Bello, Executive Director of Focus on the Global South.

KONG YEE SAI MAU

Posted by admin | Dec 11, 2005 | Trade and Investment

By Nicola Bullard

(HONG KONG, 11 December) More than 4,000 workers, farmers, migrant workers chanting "kong yee sai mau " (no to WTO) marched through the bustling commercial district of Hong Kong on day one of the Peoples’ Action Week, which will continue throughout the WTO ministerial from 13-18 December. Local speakers at the rally called for an end to collusion between government and business — a hot issue in Hong Kong, where the democracy movement’s basic demand for one person, one vote can bring up to half a million people onto the streets. Calls to slow down trade liberalisation or even shut down the WTO are a much harder sell, given Hong Kong’s history as a free trade port and financial hub for the region, but if the young waiter who wished us "luck" against the WTO is any indication, perhaps radical sentiments are being stirred.

FOCUS: ON THE ROAD TO HONG KONG Number 4, December 2005

Posted by admin | Dec 10, 2005 | Trade and Investment

As trade negotiators board their planes for Hong Kong, Aileen Kwa gives a pessimistic assessment of the state of play: In the first article she reports on manoeuverings in the office of the director general, and in the second...

WHY SA NEEDS TO OPPOSE GATS

Posted by admin | Dec 10, 2005 | 1Post Types

By Dot Keet, Alternative Information and Development Centre, South Africa (Published in the Business Report, Johannesburg, 8 December 2005) The governments and corporations of the major industrialised countries are...

WTO FALLING OUT OF FAVOR WITH THE CARIBBEAN

Posted by admin | Dec 10, 2005 | 1Post Types

Hon. Charles Savarin, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Labour, Commonwealth of Dominica PRECARIOUS FUTURE These are difficult times for the Caribbean. Comprised of some of the world’s smallest, most...

LAMY: DISHONEST BROKER IN TRADE TALKS, DISAPPEARANCE OF COVER NOTE

Posted by admin | Dec 10, 2005 | 1Post Types

Lamy has proven himself to be a dishonest broker for developing countries. Members have been given an assurance on the 2nd December General Council meeting that the cover note that was attached to the 1 December draft would be...

SNR Coalition leads huge protest against proposed new trade agreements

Posted by admin | Dec 9, 2005 | Trade and Investment

A broad coalition of social movements and civil society organizations assailed the current negotiations for new multilateral trade deals under the World Trade Organization and demanded that the Philippine government led by our chief negotiator Trade Secretary Peter Favila oppose any such deal from moving forward in Hong Kong.

Around 5, 000 farmers, fishers, laborers, students, urban poor, small producers and NGO workers from the Stop the New Round! Coalition are expected to gather at Plaza Miranda to dramatize their opposition to new trade agreements.

A People’s History of the WTO: A CD

Posted by admin | Dec 8, 2005 | 1Post Types

“A People’s History of the WTO” arises from the experience of struggling to find a way to express this human and political drama. The CD, downloadable from http://www.peopleshistory.net/ website, is a tool for activists working...

LAMY PLANS TO HOODWINK AFRICANS WITH EMPTY “DEVELOPMENT” AND AID PROMISES

Posted by admin | Dec 7, 2005 | 1Post Types

By Aileen Kwa (GENEVA – 7 December) The Hong Kong Ministerial will be choreographed in order to heighten the likelihood that the “masses” on the inside – the African Group, Africa, Caribbean...