Will the World Trade Organization deliver on its promises to promote environmentally sustainable development at its 10-14 September Meeting in Cancun, Mexico?

September 3, 2003
From September 10-14, 2003, the World Trade Organization (WTO) will meet in Cancun, Mexico. The meeting, held once every two years, will bring together the trade ministers of over 140 countries, will assess progress to date on the Doha round of trade talks (due to conclude by the end of 2004) and take some key decisions that will determine whether the talks will result in a global trading system that balances narrow economic interest against broader environmental, public health, and social values.

CIEL has been working since the early 1990’s to

a) ensure that global trade rules do not compromise the ability of local and national governments to address environmental and public health problems

and

b) ensure that such rules actively promote sustainable development, both in the United States and in the developing world.

The Cancun meeting is a critical juncture and will determine to a large extent whether the WTO can deliver on its promises to use its power to promote environmentally sustainable development. CIEL attorneys and program staff will attend the Cancun meeting and participate actively in civil society events surrounding the WTO meeting, with a particular emphasis on the following issues:


Global Investment Rules

In Cancun, WTO members will likely decide whether or not to add several “new issues” to the negotiating mandate, including investment, competition, transparency in government procurement, and customs facilitation. CIEL and many other civil society groups have argued against inclusion of the new issues in general, and investment in particular.

  • While the need is for investment rules that ensure that foreign investment flows contribute to the sustainable development of developing countries, both the WTO and existing approaches focus on limiting the regulatory powers of national and local governments as a way to protect corporate investors.
  • Investment rules would exceed the competency of the WTO as investment differs fundamentally from trade and trade negotiators lack the capacity to address broader issues of sustainability.
  • Adding new and complex topics to the negotiations will overwhelm developing country negotiators.

 

Good Governance

The WTO and other institutions involved in economic globalization must reform themselves to move beyond the status quo which allows the powerful few to dictate the terms of international commerce. CIEL’s view is that bad process produces bad results.

  • The WTO must adopt a more open and transparent internal decision making process that prevents powerful countries from dictating outcomes.
  • Greater external transparency is also necessary to ensure that the public is able to monitor negotiations and disputes in a manner that allows for meaningful input in to decisions.
  • The failure of current WTO negotiations to even address the issue of amicus (or friend of the court) briefs in WTO disputes illustrates just how far the WTO dispute settlement system needs to evolve to become a legitimate forum.

 

Additionally, regarding process, CIEL recently took the lead on a letter that was addressed to Dr. Luis Ernesto Derbez Bautista at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Mexico regarding a recent requirement imposed by the Mexican Government that is requiring “Special Event” FM3 visas in order for accredited NGOs to attend the Ministerial in Cancun. This unexpected expense and inequitable requirement may seriously constrain ability to attend the Ministerial, and compromises the WTO promise of transparency.

 

Intellectual Property

In Doha, WTO Members recognized that the provisions of the Agreement on Trade-related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) must be read in the light of its objectives, including social and economic welfare. One of the key issues in Cancun will be whether the progress of the “Development Round” actually reflects this statement.

  • Countries still have not agreed on a solution to the difficulties WTO Members with insufficient or no manufacturing capacities in the pharmaceutical sector face in the use of compulsory licensing, a key measure in ensuring access to medicines. WTO members must reach a solution in the spirit of the Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health, which affirmed that the Agreement “can and should be interpreted and implemented in a manner supportive of WTO Members’ right to protect public health.”
  • The ongoing review of Article 27.3 (b) of the TRIPS Agreement should also respond to development needs. Many developing countries, for instance, demand a clarification that living organisms should not be patented. Developing countries also demand mechanisms that require patent applications, as a condition for the grant of the right, to disclose the origin of any biological resources and traditional knowledge used in the invention and to provide proof of compliance with the laws of the country of origin, including prior informed consent and access and benefit sharing arrangements.


International Environmental Treaties

The WTO is negotiating the relationship between trade rules and multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs). This raises several problems:

  • Currently, representatives from MEA Secretariats are not included in the negotiations, even as observers, which virtually ensures that the negotiations will not reach a balanced outcome.
  • The danger of the MEA negotiation is that it will create a hierarchy that places international economic law above other forms of international law, and thus makes addressing international environmental and public health problems more difficult.

CIEL staff that attended attend the WTO Ministerial were Steve Porter, Elisabeth Tuerk, Maria Julia Oliva, Marcos Orellana, and Jennifer Federico. Plans are being made for CIEL to host workshops on the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the Environment, Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), and the Impacts of Trade Liberalization on Local Communities.

Following is the Draft Text for the Ministerial that was released on August 24th. There is the likelihood that it will be forwarded to Cancun pretty much as it appears, although it is possible that additional text on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights and Health may be added.

Additionally available is the cover letter from the Director General of the WTO, Supachai Panitchpakdi, and the Chairman of the General Council of the WTO, Carlos Perez del Castillo, to the Chairman of the Canucn Ministerial Conference of the WTO conveying said draft text.

Publications presented by CIEL staff at the Ministerial include:

For more information on the Ministerial, see:

http://www.wto.org
http://www.omcmexico.org.mx/WebPage/index_EN.php
http://www.ourworldisnotforsale.org/cancun/NewsUpdates.asp
http://www.citizenstrade.org/wto.php#websites
http://www.iatp.org/
http://www.ictsd.org/ministerial/index.htm
http://www.ifg.org/
http://www.boell.org