The onus is now on world trade players to prove they are serious about alleviating poverty, says Guy Ryder

The current round of negotiations at the World Trade Organisation is on the wrong track if it is to deliver decent jobs and help end poverty.

In the eyes of world citizens, the success of the Doha round hinges on what it delivers for the world’s poor and exploited. In October 2005, trade union leaders from 45 countries discussed together with the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the International Labour Organisation how the goal of more and better jobs can be achieved.

As world trade union leaders turn their minds to how the trade union movement can best contribute to the fight against poverty, so the onus was on government negotiators at the WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong in December 2005, to turn their minds to getting development back on the Doha agenda. Otherwise the Doha round, instead of fulfilling its promise of alleviating poverty, will continue to deteriorate, with even less transparent negotiations taking place. Everyone understands the importance of making the round deliver: but the question remains – deliver for whom?

Barriers to development

Despite loud protests from developing countries, the so-called Swiss formula, a proposal that would give developing countries less control over their ability to pursue economic policies beneficial to them, is still on the table. This is despite the risk that, if utilised, it will lead to steep and sudden tariff reductions precisely at a time when developing countries are trying to industrialise their economies and create jobs.

“Have we learned nothing from the pain inflicted by the factory closures, job losses and economic shocks caused by the end of the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing?” Lawrence Egulu, from the African regional organisation of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, asked recently during the ILO forum on poverty. He continued:

“Workers cannot have the faith that trade will deliver decent jobs and a chance to break the cycle of poverty whilst they are forced to bear the brunt of economic restructuring. The WTO must put in place adequate support mechanisms to ensure workers are not left on the scrap heap as a consequence of its policies.”

In the negotiations on services, the “benchmarking proposal” is still being pushed by some industrialised countries. Yet this could be used to force countries to open up their service markets in areas where they need to preserve the right to direct domestic policy the most: health, water, education, transport and telecommunications.

It would be a crying shame if the year after 30 million of the world’s citizens united in an unprecedented campaign to stop poverty, key world trade players listened even less to those affected the most by unjust trade rules- the Least Developed Countries, African and Caribbean countries. Once again these countries face effective exclusion from the negotiations and their workers stand to lose out unless serious steps are taken to change tack.

Guy Ryder is the general secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.

Unravelling the Doha round By the time you read this, the sixth ministerial conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) will have concluded in Hong Kong amid claims of success, failure, triumph or disaster, depending on point of view. more>>