New Hampshire News
| Trade Turnaround Opinion Editorial |
| Posted by Jaime Contois (jcontois) on Dec 08 2009 at 9:10 PM |
It is time for a fair trade turnaround
By Jaime Contois
Ten years ago this week the United States hosted the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, Wash. The meeting brought together trade ministers and officials from 135 member countries. The controversial talks collapsed due to both internal conflict between developing and developed nations and the widespread civil society opposition. Thousands of people in the streets were rightly concerned about provisions granting unelected WTO officials the authority to declare member nations’ laws illegal, in which case the member countries would have to change their laws or pay.This week the WTO was at it again. Ten years to the day after the controversial talks disintegrated in Seattle, the now 153 member nations of the WTO met in Geneva, Switzerland. The talks, scheduled two years late due to key disagreements between developing nations and developed countries, were pulled together to see if the most recent negotiations to expand the power of the WTO could be concluded by the end of 2010. The current round of negotiations, called the “Doha Round,” was supposed to focus on the needs of poor countries in areas such as agriculture, but has also moved toward forcing poor countries to reduce tariffs and deregulate services provided by foreign corporations in vital areas including health, water and education.
Here in the United States the corporate trade agenda to deregulate and “liberalize” the global economy has been linked to the collapse of the financial system, the movement of jobs to countries where workers are killed for organizing for their rights and children manufacture our clothes, and has led to corporate food policy reducing our families food quality and safety.
But many are trying to draw the curtain over failed ideology. This week in Geneva, WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy declared before a room of more than 300 civil society representatives and reporters present at a pre-ministerial meeting that the rules of the WTO did not contribute to the world financial crisis, the world food crisis or growing unemployment in many countries. His statement was met with laughter
While many WTO member countries have rejected many of the assumptions that have been pushed since before the Seattle protests, a small but extremely powerful group of countries, including the United States and England, continue to push for the undemocratic policies of the “Doha Round.”
As the “Doha Round” has stalled and the Bush/Clinton/Bush trade agenda has shown its true colors there is a real opportunity for a turnaround on trade policy.
The Obama Administration and the United States Congress have a choice. They can stick with the Bush/Clinton/Bush agenda of deregulation, job loss, and regressive health and environmental policy, or they can lead an effort to take the rules of the global economy in a new direction.
We need a new trade agenda. Civil society groups have developed their ability in the past 15 years to provide sophisticated analysis and alternative proposals for a fair trade agenda that puts enforceable labor and environmental standards, human rights, poverty alleviation and climate protection at its core.
Investment in local, sustainable agriculture; smaller, decentralized power projects; respect for indigenous land rights; leaving fossil fuels in the ground; loosening protections on green technology; and paying for these transformations by taxing financial transactions and canceling foreign debts are proposals that will make their way to Copenhagen in the coming weeks.
New Hampshire is leading in this national and international discussion through the creation of the N.H. Citizen’s Trade Policy Commission, designed to examine the impact international trade policy has on the state of New Hampshire and its people. Civil society groups like Working Families Win and the American Friends Service Committee continue to offer community forums where the public can come together to explore the issues that link each of us to the talks that happened in Geneva this week.
The Trade Reform, Accountability, Development, and Employment (TRADE) Act legislation was introduced into Congress earlier this year to promote a new direction for trade policy, increase democratic participation, protect human rights and expand trade as a way to achieve greater societal goals. Both of New Hampshire’s representatives, Paul Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter, have signed on to the legislation.
This week the TRADE Act was introduced in the Senate. We can now continue the call for a new direction on the rules that determine trade policy by calling on Sen. Jeanne Shaheen to co-sponsor the legislation and encourage debate on policy that puts health, environmental and climate protection, human rights and democratic process on par with a corporations’ right to make profit.
Jaime Contois, who lives in Keene, is the N.H. Organizer for Working Families Win, which works to empower people to hold their elected officials accountable on issues that affect their health and economic security.