EFFAT’s view on the negotiations in the Doha round of the WTO

The current economic crisis pushes the need to go ahead with fair multilateral trade talks, strengthen bilateral trade and investment as a way to combat economic slowdown. Another chance is given to the negotiators to open up genuine economic prospects for developing countries, to help the poorest of the poor effectively, to provide millions of small farmers and their families with a secure basis of existence, to combat once and for all the worst forms of child labor, and to outlaw the drastic violation of human rights and workers rights as well as the oppression of unions in many countries through worldwide trade actions. In any case, these questions were as far down on the agenda of the negotiations as the questions on effective and sustainable development through fair trade. As long as these questions are not on at the top of the agenda, the WTO is really contributing nothing to the resolution of the biggest and most urgent problems in the world today, such as fighting hunger, unemployment, environmental pollution, and the waste of our limited natural resources.

Effective and sustainable development on our planet is today completely unthinkable without a sustainable globalization and fair world trade. But it is only possible when the main players responsible for this development bid farewell to the myth of social and economic Darwinism, according to which free trade is a blessing per se for all those involved. It most certainly is not. Competition in and of itself is not a bad thing, but only when it follows fair rules. It is in the nature of free competition that the bigger players swallow up the smaller ones and the more powerful seek to eliminate the weaker both socially and economically. Many problems such as a lack of safety for food provisions, mad cow disease, the bird flu and so forth, with which we have to deal directly in the production and processing of foodstuffs, are, as we know today, the negative results of industrial production exposed to the uncontrolled and destructive pressure of competition and cost effectiveness.

Therefore, EFFAT expects from the EU:

1. A multilateral agreement is still desirable, but not at any price. The agreement must call for truly effective, sustainable and fair world trade. The multi-functionality of agriculture, for example, should not be sacrificed on the altar of WTO negotiations.

2. As long as a WTO agreement that is also fair for developing countries cannot be reached, the EU will take the route that the North Americans and the Japanese have been taking for years - namely, the conclusion of bilateral or regional agreements complementary to a multilateral WTO agreement.

From the EU, EFFAT expects that these contracts not only take direct account of the national problems of the developing and emerging countries, but also make a constructive contribution to the social and economic progress of these countries. The new partnership agreement, which the EU is currently negotiating with the ACP countries (including 39 of the poorest countries in the world), in order to replace the Cotonou Agreement (expired at the end of 2007), does not go far enough in promoting the development of these countries.

3. In this process, the preservation of ecological, economic and social minimum standards must be a part of bilateral trade agreements. On this point, the EU has set important standards through the introduction of a so-called GSP-plus in their ordinance on a scheme of general tariff preferences (Ordinance no. 980/2005 of June 27, 2005 ) by making the guarantee of certain additional trade preferences dependent on the ratification and implementation of 16 essential United Nations and International Labor Organization (ILO) agreements on human and workers rights, as well as of 11 more agreements concerning the environment and basic measures for responsible governance(Appendix 3 of the ordinance). The implementation should be constantly monitored by the EU.

In a rudimentary way, the preservation of the social minimum standards had already been until now a part of the EU preference system; in practice in any case, it turned out to be only slightly effective. Therefore these regulations (together with the International Labor Organization) must be further developed into a really usable and effective instrument.

The experience with ACP states in the sugar sector, for example, has shown us how necessary the maintenance of social minimum standards really is. The opening of the EU sugar market and even the payment of high, guaranteed prices to ACP states did not automatically lead to better working and social conditions for employees in these countries. In other words, without unions there is no social progress over there as well. Therefore, the recognition and practical implementation of fundamental worker and union rights must be an indispensable prerequisite for all countries who wish to participate in free trade. On this question, EFFAT is working in close collaboration with the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and other European trade union federations.

4. The agricultural and food processing sector will be affected by trade agreements. It is to be expected that the Commission will continue its activities on the further reform of the agricultural policy, even independently of the WTO negotiations. Therefore EFFAT and its member organizations will continue to scrutinize and measure the upcoming reforms and structural changes (end of agricultural export subsidies, simplification of agricultural policy, and transfer of agricultural policy to the new member states) according to their impact on employment and working conditions. For these reforms and changes have enormous ramifications for the quantity and quality of jobs in the agricultural sector and in food processing of the EU.

Brussels, 19th February 2009 (updated)