Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)

The upcoming ministerial meeting in Hong Kong is of utmost importance to developing countries. The State must show leadership and be a voice for justice and fairness. Since this round of negotiations began four years ago, Europe and other industrialised countries have been rolling back on the commitment that this should be a development round. This is not acceptable. The WTO's ministerial conference in Cancun collapsed when developing countries banded together and rejected the blueprint proposed by the WTO secretariat which did nothing to redress the disadvantages faced by developing countries in world trade. It amounted to nothing more than increased benefits for northern producers and industrialised countries.

The WTO, founded in 1995, replaced the general agreement on trade and tariffs. Its role and objective is to ensure no member state adopts any type of protectionism in order to accelerate the liberalisation of global trading and facilitate the strategies of the multinationals. These trade negotiations, which have been dominated by rich developed countries, have progressively reduced taxes and other protections which countries are allowed to place on imports. The WTO is supported in this objective by the IMF and the World Bank.

However, these policies are not helping these countries to develop. Western industrialised states use tariffs, subsidies and active investment policies to create their wealth. Governments in developing countries are being pushed to open up their economies to import more services and reduce social spending, thus drastically cutting social budgets in areas such as health, education, housing and infrastructure, and ending subsidies on products and services of primary necessity. All this has drastic consequences for local populations as living conditions in these countries deteriorate.

The upcoming WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong is the last opportunity to restore the Doha development round and put genuine development back on track. It is pointless to speak of development aid if we are not prepared to allow these countries to use trade policies to support their vulnerable farmers and local industries and to allow countries to choose the best policies to address the social and economic needs of their population.

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