STATEMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY AT THE AFRICAN UNION TRADE MINISTERS MEETING

Mauritius, June 18 2003

We, civil society organizations present at the First Session of the African Union Ministerial Sub-Committee on Trade, appreciate the opportunity to participate in this meeting and to share our views with the Ministers.

We underline the crucial need to retain the unity around collective African positions at key fora of the multilateral trading system, particularly in the preparations for the Fifth WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancun. This is vital, in light of persistent obstacles that African countries face in participating effectively in the WTO system. African countries have suffered from the imbalanced, undemocratic and untransparent decision making processes since the establishment of the WTO.

We urge our Ministers to maintain their unity in the upcoming meetings for the preparations towards Cancun, in order to ensure that the decisions made in Cancun will effectively reflect the concerns and needs of all African people, men and women, particularly in the areas of development, food sovereignty, health, employment, social equity and regional economic integration.

To this end, we urge Ministers to remain firm on their policy stance in relation to the WTO agreements and rules, which call for review and redress of existing imbalances rather than the negotiation of new agreements.

We call on Ministers to oppose, as they have done in the past, the inclusion of the so-called Singapore Issues - investment, competition policy, transparency in government procurement and trade facilitation - in the WTO and reject any attempt to launch negotiations on these issues in Cancun. There is no consensus among WTO members on issues of principles, substance and modalities. Furthermore, there is ample evidence that the core principles of the proposed agreements will undermine the development goals of African countries, the livelihoods and rights of their peoples, as well as the policy sovereignty of African Governments.

Furthermore, Ministers must take actions to change key WTO agreements and rules, especially in the area of agriculture, market access for non-agricultural products, intellectual property, services and special and differential treatment.

All the special and differential treatment and implementation issues that have been raised since the coming into force of the Uruguay Round Agreements should be resolved and implemented immediately and to the satisfaction of African countries.

Actions must be taken to eliminate domestic support measures and export subsidies by developed countries. African and other developing countries must have the right to protect poor farmers against dumping and cheap import surges of agricultural products in order to ensure food security and livelihoods for small-scale farmers, especially women, who constitute the majority of African peoples.

The main aim of the negotiations on market access for non-agricultural products should be to promote national industry and the industrialisation process in developing countries. African countries with a weak and vulnerable industrial base should not have to assume obligations for tariff reductions, and should be able to increase tariffs beyond bound levels.

In relation to the TRIPS Agreement, African Ministers should stand firm before Cancun by insisting on a solution that is true to the spirit and letter of the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health. This solution must cover all diseases and public health issues. Governments must have the right to determine what constitutes a public health problem. We urge Ministers to pursue the review process of Article 27.3b in the TRIPS Agreement. The review process must enable the protection of farmers' right of access to seeds and must ensure that no life forms including micro organisms, genes or gene sequences, can be patented.

In relation to trade in services, Ministers must call for a moratorium on the GATS negotiations and processes until independent and reliable impact assessments have been carried out. Governments should not lose their ability to regulate policy on economic activities and to provide basic, affordable and accessible services to their entire people. We stress that there is no compulsion for African Governments to make requests, respond to requests or make offers.

African Ministers should be ready to reject any negotiating outcomes that are a result of undemocratic processes and do not address their concerns. With regards to Cancun, they should oppose the manipulative and undemocratic practices such as the exclusive informal meetings, mini-Ministerials, and other untransparent devices such as the "Friends of the Chair" in the WTO.

It is the responsibility of African Ministers to ensure that the outcomes of discussions in Cancun and beyond do not undermine the aspirations of African peoples and regional economic integration.

It is also the duty of African Ministers to recognize the central role of African women in all aspects of production and trade, as well as social reproduction in African countries. In recognition of this role, we urge Ministers to take actions to give primacy to human rights and sustainable human development in trade negotiations.

We welcome the readiness of Ministers to engage with civil society, and encourage them to continue this engagement. We appreciate that in the coming period up to Cancun, African Governments will be under pressure from developed countries. We will continue to work with African Governments to ensure that the multilateral trade agreements and rules serve the interests of African peoples at all levels of society.

24.06. 2003