9549: PAPDA on the WTO Doha summit (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

The Haitian Platform to Advocate for Alternative Development (PAPDA) suggests that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) summit which has begun at Doha in Qatar will contribute to a further worsening of the problems linked to free trade.

According to the PAPDA, the countries of the North are not taking into account the concerns expressed by the countries of the South. The latter have denounced the way in which this meeting was prepared, as well as the agenda that has been agreed.

In effect, this meeting has been prepared in a highly polemical and tense atmosphere. The countries of the North want to use the conference to launch a new round of negotiations from next year, while the countries of the South would first like to see Commerce ministers look into an evaluation of the results of the last round before passing on to a new initiative.

The countries of the South propose that the Commerce ministers of the WTO countries study the consequences of the last round for the lives of the inhabitants of the Third World before thinking about a new round.

According to the PAPDA, the Doha summit organisers plan to insist on transparency at the level of the market, on intellectual property rights, and on priority to be given to multinational companies.

The PAPDA spokespeople are though encouraged by the decision of the Haitian government not to participate in the summit meeting. According to them, the Haitian authorities have shown their disapproval of the non-democratic procedures used by the WTO. These procedures, they claim, go against the interests of the Third World countries.

(source: AHP, translated from French by Charles Arthur for the Haiti Support Group)

Haiti Support Group web site: www.gn.apc.org/haitisupport