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CUTS-ARC
SOUNDS
Promoting
South-South Civil Society Cooperation
Issue.
No.
5
of 2004
A
quarterly
E-Newsletter Published by
CUTS- Africa Resource Centre, Lusaka, Zambia
No. 4 of 2004
No. 3 of 2003
No.
2 of 2003
No.
1 of 2003
No.
5 of 2002
No.
4 of 2002
Vol. 1 No. 3 - June
2002
Vol. 1 No. 2 -
June 2001
Vol. 1 No.1- April 2001
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same. Please do let us know to make the necessary changes
EDITOR’S NOTE
Africa’s Development is the World’s Development
If Africa’s development is good for its people, then it is
good for the whole world. Then, is it impossible for the west to avert the
worst by total debt cancellation, freeing South-North trade and facilitating
South-South cooperation for Africa and its people? The multilateral and
bilateral ‘partners’ in development, instead of merely lip servicing, should
move forward and remove non-tariff barriers to trade.
Take Zambia, for example. This south central sub-Saharan
African country, with a population of 10 million, has already paid US$11bn as
interest for its present US$6.5bn debt. Much of this debt was incurred as a
direct cost of Zambia’s fight against global racism and apartheid. Such noble
wars, no doubt, have made the world a better place for the business
environment.
At this point, one is forced to quote Tanzanian founding
President Julius Nyerere, when he asked a very strong rhetorical question: “Is
it morally right to take bread out of the mouths of children in poor countries
in order to put cake in the mouths of children in rich countries?” Therefore,
the morally right thing, which is the only right thing to do, is for the world
to support 100 percent debt cancellation and iron out the
unfair trading rules.
Editor
ACTIVITY REPORTS:
WTO Panel Discussion on South-South
Cooperation, Geneva, 26 May 2004
Consumer Unity and Trust Society-Africa Resource Centre
(CUTS-ARC) participated in a panel discussion organised by CUTS Centre for
International Trade, Economics and Environment (CUTS-CITEE). The panel
discussion focussed on the status of South-South cooperation in the present
context of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Doha agenda negotiations and
also the eleventh session of United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development (UNCTAD), at Sao Paulo.
Lakshmi Puri, of UNCTAD, stressed that the developing
country markets are becoming the regional and global growth nodes with 43
percent of the United States of America and 48 percent of Japanese exports
going to developing countries. Werner Corrales of the International Centre for
Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) observed that the issues of
“compensation” through Special and Differential Treatment (S&D) and capacity
building were not only in multilateral trade negotiations but also in
South-South trade. Ambassador Toufiq Ali of the Bangladesh Mission mentioned
that cooperation in South Asia can be enhanced if Least Developed Countries (LDCs)
such as Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan are given better market access
opportunities by large developing countries such as India”.
(For details please visit
www.cuts-international.org)
11th Session of UNCTAD
held at Sao Paulo,
Representatives of CUTS-ARC and CUTS participated in the
eleventh session of the UNCTAD XI, which took place in Sao Paulo, Brazil from
13 - 18 June 2004. The theme of the conference was “enhancing
coherence between national development strategies and global economic
processes towards economic growth and development, particularly of developing
countries”. The following are the highlights of the conference.
Like at the WTO Cancun meet, agriculture occupied the
centre stage of discussions at Sao Paulo. Several rounds of discussions were
held between the two major groups–the European Union (EU) and the United
States America (USA) on the one side and G-20 and G-90 on the other. Civil
Society declaration to UNCTAD XI raised concerns at the near disappearance of
the commodity sector, which is the largest single source of employment,
income, public revenue and foreign exchange in many low-income countries,
particularly Africa and LDCs.
Renewed calls for South-South cooperation took on a bold
focus when the Thai Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, said at the
inaugural session that developing countries may decide to focus on trade among
themselves rather than with their richer counterparts, if developed countries
do not break down trade barriers.
On the issue of foreign direct investment (FDI), the
impetus should be to focus on gains, rather than on quantity. Notably, the
Secretary-General of CUTS International, Pradeep S. Mehta, shared the findings
of the multi-country “Investment for Development” project carried out in seven
developing countries by CUTS in 2001-2003 that three critical factors stand in
the way of harnessing fruits from FDI: lack of market openness, poor marketing
networks and inequalities in the international trading system.
Speaking in support of South-South trade, the Ugandan
President, Yoweri Museveni, did not mince his words when he concluded his
keynote address by saying that if the 800 million Africans, the 1 billion
Indians, the 1.3 billion Chinese, the hundreds of millions Latin Americans
and the 200 million Indonesians consumed as much as the Americans, that would
be good for the world economy and would be a win-win situation, instead of the
present win-loose situation.
Taking on the Free Trade Areas (FTAs) UNCTAD outgoing
Secretary General, Rubens Ricupero, charged that Article XXIV of GATT, making
provisions for regional and bilateral trade agreements, is flawed. According
to him, FTAs do not deserve this name, as slowly they are undermining the key
element of non-discrimination in multilateralism, if not in letter then in
spirit.
Thus, the conference ended on a note of
three declarations, namely, the Sao Paulo Consensus,
Spirit of Sao Paulo and the declaration adopting the launch of the third round
of Global System of Trade Preferences
Among Developing Countries (GSTP).
In the annexure of the Sao Paulo consensus on multi stakeholder partnership,
CUTS was identified as one of the partners of UNCTAD in the work related to
investment. The Sao Paulo conference reinforces the continued importance of
UNCTAD in the global system, in spite of the indifferent attitude towards it
by some powerful developed countries.
(For details please visit
www.cuts-international.org)
NEWS
BRIEFS
Address Crisis in World Trade at UNCTAD XI
World trade rules are simply not
working for the poor. Sixty percent of the poorest countries in the world are
less prosperous than they were twenty years ago. This is according to a report
entitled ‘The Rural Poverty Trap,’
released by international agency Oxfam on
11th June 2004. They are
missing out on their share of the benefits of globalisation because of unfair
trade rules.
Following the recommendations of the
draft UNCTAD XI text, ministers should move quickly to agree to reforms that
will get the Doha Development Round back on track, including allowing
developing countries to protect sensitive agricultural sectors, reforming all
trade-distorting subsidies, and ending export dumping.
(Oxfam, 11.06.04)
AGOA Extended
The United States of America’s Senate unanimously passed a
legislation to extend and modify the trade benefits under the African Growth
and Opportunity Act (AGOA). AGOA extends the third country fabric provisions,
which permit African apparel producers to use non-African produced fabric, and
takes other measures to boost US- Africa trade, while at the same time
persuading difficult economic reforms, as African countries strive to maintain
their AGOA eligibility. However, AGOA legislation has to pass through the US
Congress before the third country fabric provision expires in September.
(United States Congress,
14.06.04)
100 percent Debt Relief for HIPC Countries
The 100 percent cancellation of World Bank and IMF debt
would be a welcome gesture by the wealthy nations, and succour for the poor
African countries. For example, between 2005 and 2007, Highly Indebted Poor
Countries are scheduled to pay an average of US$295mn to the World Bank,
US$318mn to the IMF and US$17mn to the African Development Bank, for a total
of US$630mn each year. Such cancellations, combined with increased grants,
could be used to invest in health, education and clean water. If agreed and
fully funded, the US and UK governments will deserve enormous credit for
laying the foundation for the poorest countries to beat extreme poverty over
the next decade.
(Debt,
Aids, Trade in Africa 10.06.04)
EVENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
Official Launching of the IFD Zambia Study
Report
CUTS-Africa Resource Centre will organise this event in
Lusaka to coincide with the National Investment Policy Review Report to be
launched with supporting partners at the UNCTAD, Geneva. Apart from the launch
of the study report entitled ‘Investment
Policy in Zambia - Performance and Perceptions’ together with the national
advocacy document entitled ‘Investment Policy in Zambia - An Agenda for
Action,’ this seminar is designed to keep alive the spirit of the National
Reference Group (NRG) meetings that were a part of the Investment for
Development project.
(For details
please mail to cutsarc@zamnet.zm
lusaka@cuts.org)
PUBLICATIONS
COMESA
Regional Trade Agreements: The Zambian Experience
The fact that Zambia hosts the COMESA secretariat makes it difficult for the
country to back out of COMESA regional trade agreements. Some of these
agreements have affected the manufacturing industry adversely. Thus, in order
to counter these effects, the country has entered into a multiplicity of other
regional trade agreements including those of the Southern Africa Development
Community (SADC). Now with the introduction of the COMESA Customs Union,
Zambia has to choose which customs union would be the most beneficial, for no
country can belong to two custom unions. Please read for yourself this
interesting Zambian experience in this policy brief.
(For
details please mail to:
cutsarc@zamnet.zm).
(For further
information please visit: www.cuts-international.org )
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