Montreal: Mini-Ministerial, Micro-results, Mass Arrests
By Aziz Choudry
Canada's ambassador to the WTO, Sergio Marchi defended the invitation-only nature of the informal mini-Ministerial held
in Montreal from 28-30 July, claiming: "Someone has to act as the locomotive for the entire train". As many opponents of
neoliberal globalisation organise to derail the WTO, free trade’s true believers must be wondering what ever happened to
the railtrack.
Ministers and officials from 26 WTO member countries met in the Canadian city in an eleventh hour bid to jumpstart
seriously lagging trade negotiations before September’s Ministerial Meeting in Cancun which has left a deeply divided
body struggling with major credibility and image problems.
High on the meeting's agenda remained the vexed issue of agriculture. Meeting host and Canada's Minister for
International Trade, Pierre Pettigrew attacked both EU and US agricultural subsidies, and promised a successful meeting
(for free traders) "so that when we arrive in Cancun, we are already hot."
But the rug had quite literally been pulled from under Pettigrew's feet little over a week earlier, when Montreal’s
Queen Elizabeth Hotel backed out of providing the venue, citing concerns about inconvenience to its guests. The nearby
Sheraton came to the rescue, but not before the Canadian government and the WTO had been unexpectedly turfed out of one
of the city’ ritziest establishments. It was the first WTO meeting to be held in North America since Seattle and was
accompanied by a major security operation which militarised and disrupted parts of the city for several days.
After Pettigrew’s boasting that the anti-globalization movement had "completely disappeared", a well-attended anti-WTO
teach-in at the Universite du Quebec a Montreal and a 2000-strong march and rally on the eve of the meeting proved him
wrong. On 28th July, a march of a thousand activists attempted to reach the Sheraton to disrupt and if possible shut
down the conference but was blocked by a heavy contingent of riot police. While Pettigrew "consulted" ‘civil society’ -
some selected NGOs and business representatives - and posed for a photo-op, police surrounded peaceful protesters and
made mass arrests. Demonstrations continued until after the meeting had concluded.
While the Montreal Popular Mobilization Against the WTO may not have been able to shut the meetings down, the widely
divergent positions of the countries selected to attend the Montreal meeting destined the talks to be a flop.
Pettigrew's apparent optimism about the meeting was shared by almost nobody, and became more muted as the days went by.
A draft Cancun Ministerial text circulated on 18 July had already attracted strong criticism for its predictable tilt
towards the interests of the industrialised North, and its failure to reflect the views held by many Southern
delegations on many issues. It further revealed the WTO's fundamentally anti-democratic processes which have
consistently excluded the delegations from many poorer countries from having any input into its content.
Tension surrounds bilateral discussions between the EU and the USA over agriculture. At the conclusion of the Montreal
meeting, Gregor Kreuzhuber, spokesman for EU agriculture commissioner Franz Fischler said that it "should not be
misinterpreted that we are trying to cook up a deal between Europe and the US that would leave the other 144 countries
in the cold." But that was precisely what happened towards the end of the GATT Uruguay Round, so it seems unlikely that
many countries will be convinced.. Fischler says that "the two major trading blocs have to lead by example, but it takes
146 to tango." Many countries are tired of dancing to a tune set by the US and the EU, in the interests of their
transnational corporations as neoliberal policies displace and impoverish more and more of their population.
The US favours direct aid to its farmers, while the EU subsidises farm exports and pays farmers for increased
production. Both proposed cuts to agricultural subsidies, but in ways which the other party claimed was inadequate and
protectionist. The EU is suggesting across-the-board proportionate tariff cuts, while the US seeks a single universal
low level for tariffs, with bigger cuts for higher tariffs. Naturally, both formulae favour their respective corporate
farm sectors. Meanwhile both demand more agricultural liberalisation and commitments to open up other sectors - from the
Third World, whose farmers are being displaced, plunged into poverty and despair by floods of subsidised food imports.
Other contentious areas showed little signs of "progress". The EU/US dispute over genetically-modified organisms went
unresolved. The US remains dissatisfied with the EU, even after a move to allow the sale of GM foods if products
containing over 0.9% genetically-modified protein or DNA are labelled. The US says it is pursuing a WTO complaint
against what it claims is the EU's unscientific and protectionist stance on biotechnology.
Despite more promises, there was no breakthrough on the issue of poor countries being able to override the patents of
pharmaceutical corporations in order to manufacture or import cheaper generic drugs, which has been a major sticking
point, especially for countries struggling to cope with HIV/AIDS and other health crises. A few days before the Montreal
meetings, Pettigrew accused anti-WTO protesters of screwing African AIDS victims - not the WTO's Trade-related aspects
of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement which upholds drug corporations monopoly patent rights.
India's disinvestment and telecommunications minister, Arun Shourie, claimed the support of China for his government's
stance against the attempted introduction of negotiations on the "Singapore issues" (investment, transparency in
government procurement, competition policy and trade facilitation), without explicit consensus. He said "there should be
no last minute surprises sprung on delegates, which had characterised the past rounds of multilateral trade
negotiations." He also warned, "We should not be asked to take the first step without knowing where the journey would
end." Arun Shourie argued that unfettered agricultural liberalisation commitments forced upon Third World nations could
spell yet more bad news for the millions of Indians dependent on farming for the livelihoods and food security. He spoke
of a growing resentment and backlash from the Third World should people fee
Now, politicians and officials are talking tough and playing hardball as the clock ticks down towards Cancun. A number
of Cairns Group (agricultural-exporting) countries are threatening to walk out of WTO talks if they consider that not
enough progress has been made on agriculture. Agreement on agriculture remains key to paving the way for commitments to
liberalise other sectors, such as services, and to gain leverage for efforts to get talks on the Singapore issues after
Cancun.
Canadians should be under no illusions about the implications of a potential WTO investment agreement. Under the
investment chapter of the decade-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) they have already felt how disgruntled
corporations, through an investor-to-state mechanism can sue a government over measures which they claim interfere with
rights to make a profit. Perhaps most notoriously, US chemical corporation, Ethyl Corp, used NAFTA to sue Ottawa for a
1997 federal ban on imports of a fuel additive, MMT, because it was toxic and hazardous to public health. Ottawa backed
down, removed the ban, paid the corporation US $13 million (it had demanded $250 million) and apologised. Agreement to
start negotiations on the Singapore issues would herald the repeat of this scenario in 146 countries, and deliver global
capital a comprehensive and enforceable bill of rights and free
If the WTO fails to fire at Cancun, how will this affect the Free Trade Area of the Americas and other trade and
investment liberalisation projects? As we head towards the halfway mark for the conclusion of the WTO negotiations set
at Doha, after negotiating deadline after deadline has been missed, how will the free trade spindoctors concoct a
success story out of failure? How to manage the ongoing resentment of Third World governments and peoples at having
their concerns unceremoniously ignored as the EU and US once again take command of the centre-stage at the WTO? More
Doha-style bullying and dirty tactics? And will we see redoubled efforts to stitch up radical bilateral and subregional
trade and investment negotiations such as the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) which the US hoped to
conclude by the year’s end?
From August 11, WTO Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi, who also came to Montreal, will convene daily meetings for
heads of delegations to try to move forward on the gridlocked WTO talks.
In Montreal, South Africa's trade minister, Alec Irwin summed up the state of play, saying, "We have got a major
problem".
As the WTO’s legitimacy and credibility continues to dwindle in the eyes of the world’s neoliberals, we should redouble
our efforts to delegitimise the institution and the destructive model of ‘development’ which it promotes.
Source: Asia-Europe Dialogue and Partners