Welcome to the 29th edition of the Global Trade Watch E-Newsletter. It's a fortnightly event, packed with events, news about global trade from Australia and overseas, as well as actions you can take to campaign for global justice.
Contents:
1) News from Global Trade Watch 2) Upcoming Events 3) Global Trade News 4) What Can You Do? 5) Website of the Week
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1) NEWS FROM GLOBAL TRADE WATCH
* EDITORIAL: Australia-China Free Trade - Dealing With Dictators
Listen to the public statements of Australia’s closest ally - the USA - and you’ll be told that the most important goal for US (and by association, Australian) foreign policy in the twenty-first century is in the advancement of liberty and democracy around the world.
Contrast this with the actions of the Howard Government which this week is considering starting negotiations for a “free” trade agreement (FTA) with one of the most brutal and repressive of the world’s dictatorial regimes: the Chinese Communist Party.
There are two serious problems with contemplating such a trade agreement with a despotic regime like Beijing.
The first is the illegitimacy of the negotiations. In Australia, while trade negotiators are not elected, they are constrained by an elected government and parliament who must justify their actions to Australian citizens. In Australia, an attentive and critical press and opposition political parties help to make sure any deal is really in the interests of Australian citizens. While these protections are not always successful – witness the passing of the US-Australia FTA which was clearly a damaging deal for Australia – the fact that checks and balances exist at least gives trade negotiations some legitimacy.
In dictatorships like China, unelected and unaccountable governments face no such “inconvenient” constraints. There is no system of checks and balances by which citizens might feel that their interests are properly protected from a government known for its high level of corruption. There is no free media and no opposition to scrutinise the deal which is negotiated. Indeed, there is no requirement that the dictators even consider the interests of the people over whom they rule.
The second big problem with doing “free trade” deals with dictators is that the deals can, in the end, have little to do with free trade. Any concept of economic freedom or unrestricted commerce must surely include a freedom to trade ideas, including freedom of the press, freedom of expression and freedom of association. These are freedoms currently denied to the citizens of Communist China, but taken for granted by ordinary Australians.
Any Australia-China FTA will produce bizarre anomalies like this: Australian companies might face reduced tariffs for exports to China, but will remain barred from exporting history books which describe the Tiananmen Square Massacre or Chinese atrocities in Tibet. What sort of free trade is this?
A free trade agreement which does not include such basic freedoms as free speech is no free trade agreement at all. But will such issues be on the table in the coming negotiations? Not a chance.
Of course some ideological proponents of FTAs will argue that free markets themselves will encourage the development of democracy. That a China-Australia free trade agreement will encourage the growth of political freedoms in China. Unfortunately, the historical evidence shows that such a development would be extremely unlikely. One need only look at China's history – or that of other ASEAN countries like Vietnam, Laos and Brunei with which Australia hopes to establish free trade agreements. These are all countries which have embraced free markets for over a decade, and all countries which show no signs at all of moving towards any form of democracy.
The vision of Australian negotiators sitting down to do deals with despots is surely not one of which many Australians would approve. The Howard Government should admit that trade deals with dictators are free in name only, and hold off on any negotiations until Chinese people can freely have a say in their nation’s government, and hence in what sort of trade deal they want.
* URGENT: Ask Federal Cabinet not to begin negotiations on a China-Australia Free Trade Agreement!
From the Australian Fair Trade & Investment Network:
Federal Cabinet is set to decide (probably on Tues March 22) on whether to begin negotiations on a China-Australia Free Trade Agreement next week. Please send a message that you are concerned about this FTA - including about rights issues like those outlined above, about slave-labour conditions for many Chinese workers outlined in previous e-newsletters, and about the potential negative impact of the deal for Australian manufacturing workers. A Senate enquiry (see below) is due to report in September. Let Cabinet ministers know that you don't support beginning negotiations for a trade deal until these problems are fully debated by parliament and the Australian community. Please write to or email:
The Hon Mark Vaile
Minister for Trade
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Mark.Vaile.MP@aph.gov.au
The Hon Ian Macfarlane
Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Ian.Macfarlane.MP@aph.gov.au
* Senate Inquiry into Australia-China Relations - Last Chance to make a Submission
A Senate Inquiry has been called into Australia's relationship with China. The inquiry will examine Australia's economic and political relationship with China, with specific reference to a China Free Trade Agreement and its implications for Australia and the East-Asia region. The Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee is calling for public submissions to this inquiry. The deadline for receiving submissions is 24 March 2005. The terms of reference and related documents for this Inquiry are available at: http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/fadt_ctte/china/index.htm . Submissions can be lodged electronically to fadt.sen@aph.gov.au or by post to: Committee Secretary, Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee, The Senate, Parliament House, Canberra ACT 2600.
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2) UPCOMING EVENTS
VICTORIA
* Mon 21 March, 5:30pm - Challenging Empire? The World Social Forum 2005 - The return of the World Social Forum to Brazil in January 2005 attracted 155,000 participants from across Latin America and around the world. Damian Grenfell (researcher with the Globalism Institute at RMIT) will report on his experiences as a participant at this year’s forum, and will in turn consider more general debates concerning contemporary forms of resistance to global capital. WHERE: Level 3, Building 15, RMIT University, City Campus (near corner of Swanston and Latrobe). Campus Map: www.rmit.edu.au/browse?SIMID=cxlc0nabtrud All Welcome! For full directions email Damian at damian.grenfell@rmit.edu.au or call on 9925 3462.
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
* 18-20 March - Perth Social Forum - The Perth Social Forum is a space created for and by the participants, to promote discussion in a spirit of openness, collaboration and constructive debate. It is a space for music, art, activism, debate, connection, and action! Amongst the participants are people who have participated in the World Social Forum and the European Social Forum, plus Margot Kingston, Andrew Wilkie, Helen Creed (ACTU), Professor Simon Adams, Baxter convergers, MUA, LHMU, Refugee Movement, Women's movement, disability rights, animal rights, environment movement, indigenous movement, anti-war movement, venezuela solidarity, etc. etc. There is a full program on-line at: http://www.perth.indymedia.org/uploads/0/HH_PSF%20prog_11% 20March_2.pdf or find out more here: http://www.perthsocialforum.org
* Please email in your upcoming events!
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3) GLOBAL TRADE NEWS
* BILATERAL AND REGIONAL FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS NEWS *
* China signals tough stand on free trade deal (Mar 2) - Chinese officials have blocked the publication of a joint economic study showing that big gains would be made from a trade deal with Australia, in a move that signals a hard negotiating line against Australian farm interests. The encouraging economic modelling results make it all but inevitable that Australia will soon begin formal negotiations with Asia's economic powerhouse. More: http://www.smh.com.au/news/Business/China-signals-tough-stand-on-free-trade-deal/2005/03/01/1109546871581.html
* One deal, two fatalities? The AUSFTA (Feb 28) - On January 1 this year, the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) came into force. Should Australians be worried that the government accepted this trade deal against the advice of expert trade negotiators? Did someone aim a gun at us in the process? Or should we be celebrating our government’s proclamation that we’ve logged on to a ‘once in a lifetime deal’ that binds us to the biggest economy in the world? More: http://www.econ.usyd.edu.au/drawingboard/digest/0502/kelton.html
* WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION NEWS *
* The Walking Zombie of the WTO (Mar 12) - More than 240 activists from 23 countries gathered in Hong Kong last weekend to plan a strategy for mobilization against the 6th Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) this coming December. But didn't we already kill the WTO in Cancun in 2003? And come to think of it, wasn’t it already dead in Seattle in 1999? More: http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0312-20.htm
* US must act 'quickly' on cotton (Mar 4) - Cotton growers in West Africa say they have been hurt by US policy African countries have called on the US to quickly phase out cotton subsidies after the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ruled that they were illegal. The WTO upheld a complaint from Brazil that the practice depressed world prices and hurt other cotton producers. More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4317235.stm
* Singapore issues to dominate agenda in Mombasa trade talks (Mar 1) - Developing countries want the developed countries to commit themselves to implement the Doha Development agenda before introducing any other issues for negotiation. Speaking ahead of the World Trade Organisation (WT0) mini ministerial meeting that starts in Mombasa today, Kenya’s Trade Minister Mukisha Kituyi said they are getting tired of empty promises. More: http://www.eastandard.net/archives/cl/hm_news/news.php?articleid=14424
* Officials: WTO Negotiators Must Step Up Talks on Liberalizing Services (Feb 25) - World Trade Organization members trying to finalize a sweeping accord to liberalize global commerce must step up talks on service industries, such as banking, telecommunications and transport, senior officials said Friday. Failure to pick up the pace could undermine advances in other crucial areas of WTO talks, said Hamid Mamdouh, director of the WTO Trade in Services
Division. More: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBK2QZNM5E.html
* Financial services firms lobby developing countries at WTO (Feb 14) - A group representing some of the largest financial sector corporations have been taking part in meetings at the World Trade Organisation ahead of services negotiations next week in an attempt to convince developing country members to open up their financial services sector under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). More: http://www.twnside.org.sg/title2/twninfo183.htm
* More News on the WTO here: http://www.globaltrading.com/s/trading/wto.html
* WORLD BANK / IMF NEWS *
* Wolfowitz nominated to run World Bank (17 Mar) - In a move already drawing criticism, the United States has nominated one of the architects of the war in Iraq to run the World Bank. US President George W. Bush has put forward his Deputy Secretary of Defence, Paul Wolfowitz, for the top job at the Bank, which is the world's largest financier of development projects to poorer countries. More: http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2005/s1325588.htm
* Staff Accuses World Bank of ”Cooking the Books” (Mar 14) - A U.S. Congressional committee said Monday that it would probe allegations of accounting irregularities at the World Bank, the world's largest development agency that lent 20 billion dollars last year. More: http://www.ipsnews.net/new_nota.asp?idnews=27863
* Why two caves are better than one (Review of "The World's Banker") - Sebastian Mallaby combines a history of the World Bank with a biography of its flamboyant president. It will make uncomfortable reading for some. More: http://www.guardian.co.uk/globalisation/story/0,7369,1425166,00.html
* A Carbon Rush at the World Bank (Feb 2005) - As the Kyoto Protocol comes into force this month, a carbon rush is gaining steam in the financial industry. Investors predict that the carbon trade could become one of the largest markets in the world with a trading volume of $60 - $250 billion by 2008 and some unlikely actors are gearing up to profit from this new, invisible market. Foremost among them is the World Bank. More: http://www.fpif.org/papers/0502wbank.html
* OTHER GLOBAL TRADE NEWS *
* Time to End US Cotton Subsidies (Mar 10) - With the World Trade Organization having ruled US cotton subsidies illegal, it is now time to end the practice which hurts poor farmers in Africa and benefits industrial-scale producers in the US, writes the Christian Science Monitor. The paper also calls for an increase in US foreign aid to the 540 million residents of Sub-Saharan Africa who receive far less in assistance than just 7,500 US cotton farmers. More: http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/trade/subsidies/2005/0310timetoend.htm
* Landmark Victory in World's First Case Against Biopiracy (Mar 8) - In a landmark decision today, the European Patent Office upheld a decision to revoke in its entirety a patent on a fungicidal product derived from seeds of the Neem, a tree indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. More: http://www.biotechimc.org/or/2005/03/4010.shtml
* Coca-Cola Faces Campus Boycotts over Colombia Murders (Mar 2) - Students at about 90 US university campuses urge bans against Coca-Cola because of the alleged murders of labor activists at the company's bottling plants in Colombia. Despite the fact that Coca-Cola denies any involvement in human rights abuses, experts say boycotts may hurt the company's image among young people, who are its most important marketing target. More: http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/tncs/2005/0302coke.htm
* The Last Porto Alegre - Discerning the State of the World Social Forum After Five Years (Feb 2005) - The World Social Forum (WSF) certainly has its faults. But the WSF, yet to reach its full capacity, still exists as a unique counter to the World Economic Forum. This article celebrates the WSF as an integral part of the anti-globalization movement's future and praises the event organizers' decision to move to biennial conferences in cities other than Porto Alegre. More: http://www.fpif.org/papers/0502alegre.html
* More Trade News Available Here: http://www.ictsd.org/weekly
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4) WHAT CAN YOU DO?
* URGENT: Ask Federal Cabinet not to begin negotiations on a China-Australia Free Trade Agreement!
See above for details.
* Send An E-Card to ask the IMF/World Bank to forgive poor countries’ debt
While claiming to fight poverty the IMF and World Bank are draining the lifeblood out of the poorest countries in debt payments. The IMF and World Bank are the most significant creditors of the poorest countries in our world. Demand that these powerful institutions cancel the debt of the poorest of the poor - Send an e-card NOW: http://www.debtireland.org/campaigns/cancel-debt-campaign.htm
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5) WEBSITE OF THE WEEK
ATTAC International - The website of the "international movement for democratic control of financial markets and their institutions" - an international movement for financial justice with chapters in 33 countries around the world.
http://www.attac.org/indexen/index.html
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