Networking the Commonwealth for fair trade

As most of us are aware of, this week, Queen Elizabeth II, along with presidents and prime ministers from 53 Commonwealth countries from around the world will be attending the 2005 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Malta. Being the host government, it was up to Malta to select a particular theme to which the attending heads of government will allot special attention in their discussions, and which would be of special concern to developing countries, as are the majority of the Commonwealth member states. The bridging of the digital divide was considered an appropriate subject - a necessity if such countries are to develop and prosper.

To reflect this thrust, the theme chosen for the Malta CHOGM 2005 is Networking The Commonwealth For Development.

According to Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon:

"The theme of Networking The Commonwealth For Development will enable leaders not only to discuss the important issue of bridging the digital divide but also to identify ways of enhancing cooperation for prosperity, development and democracy, using Commonwealth networks to achieve these goals. The summit will give Commonwealth leaders an opportunity to take action on important global issues including the fight against poverty, and international trade. The event... is a chance for the leaders of these countries to meet and discuss issues relevant to them all and the resulting schemes are designed to benefit the people who live in the diverse member countries of the Commonwealth, made up of a great number of developing countries."

The 147-member World Trade Organisation (WTO) reached a framework agreement to reinvigorate the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) negotiations on July 31, 2004. The DDA is meant to be a once-in-a-generation opportunity to dramatically reform the rules of world trade, open new markets for goods and services and supposedly spur economic and political progress throughout the developing world. It was launched in November 2001 at the WTO's fourth ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar.

According to the WTO, negotiations on market access openings in agricultural products, industrial and consumer goods and services could add as much as $3 trillion to the world economy by the time full liberalisation takes effect.

At the September 2003 WTO ministerial conference in Cancun, Mexico, WTO members failed to reach agreement on how to move forward with the Doha round of negotiations. It is said that the Cancun setback was overcome with the conclusion of the framework agreement in Geneva in July 2004, leaving the doors open to trade liberalisation negotiations in the lead-up to the next WTO ministerial in Hong Kong, set for this December.

"The issue - how trade can support sustainable development - is the idea at the heart of fair trade," Carol Wills, executive director of the International Federation for Alternative Trade said recently. "Now, at last, it is on the international agenda. But as the fifth WTO ministerial draws near, policy makers persist with a programme of full-scale trade liberalisation despite the harm this has done to poorer countries."

So what's wrong with the world trade market as it is?

From every Lm1 you spend on a jar of coffee, the exploited farmer in the developing world gets 8c. The big multinationals sweep up the rest, making millions at the expense of the hard-working producer. With this kind of trade, the rich countries get richer and the poor, who do all the backbreaking work to support their families, remain poor. Coffee is just one of the tonnes of products that are traded in this absurd way. Other foodstuffs, paper products, gifts, machinery and furniture are some of the others.

It's all very nice to talk about injustice in world trade but of course it's not enough. Some immediate action is highly needed.

For these reasons, the Commonwealth Secretariat's report on the Doha Trade Round recommended the promotion of fair trade for developing countries and highlighted the importance of including proposals to prioritise free trade in commodities and services that facilitate the movement of unskilled labour to enable workers in poor countries to provide services to markets in rich countries.

The report, titled An Agenda for the Development Round of Trade Negotiations in the Aftermath of Cancun, was written by Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University and Andrew Charlton of Oxford University. It details the reforms that would deliver the largest gains to developing countries and, consequently, should be given the highest priority in world trade negotiations.

At the launch of the Commonwealth report, Prof. Stiglitz said that developing countries should receive special and differential treatment because they have been disadvantaged by unfair trade negotiations in the past and because of the differences in their current circumstances. Developed countries have been widely criticised for their agricultural subsidies and other trade restrictions, which discriminate against key agricultural and manufactured exports from developing countries. "The fact that the agricultural subsidies of Europe, the US and Japan exceed the entire income of Sub-Saharan Africa, you ask them, how can they effectively compete? Unless we have fair procedures, we're not going to get fair outcomes. And the current procedures are really not fair, they're really not transparent, they're not democratic," Prof. Stiglitz said.

The main message is that it is important to provide developing countries with real opportunities to trade their way out of poverty. Prof. Stiglitz warned that this "will certainly remain impossible until we do have a truly fair, transparent multilateral trading system. But the reality is too often that the existing rules are skewed against poor countries". Trade opportunities supported by greater aid flows and market access, especially in those products in which developing countries have a distinct advantage, were pinpointed as key elements for improving fair trade between developing nations and other countries.

EU Commissioner Poul Nielsen has also urged developed countries to reaffirm and honour the commitments agreed to in Doha. "Over the past year, we have agreed to a framework for increasing aid and market access. The developed countries must now deliver on these commitments. The EU, as the world's leading trade and aid partner for developing countries, is fully determined to deliver on its commitments."

Such initiatives need to be taken primarily on a world trade level, by creating fair and transparent negotiating rules which give concrete advantages to developing countries in the lead-up to the next WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong. On a national and grassroots level however, increased market access for fair trade organisations and their goods, and an increase of exportation quotas, can also be supported by improving communication and cooperation between environmental NGOs set on promoting fair trade practices, such as The Gaia Foundation, fair trade organisations and fair trade customers throughout the Commonwealth.

Since the Commonwealth today operates most effectively as a network of multi-level communication among 53 states, The Gaia Foundation believes that CHOGM 2005 is a suitable avenue for the completion of a detailed and functional database containing contact addresses of all the fair trade organisations and environmental NGOs promoting fair trade practices existent within the Commonwealth today. It also needs to be ensured there is positive, smooth and cooperative communication between them on a day-to-day working basis in order to promote, facilitate and encourage the exportation of fair trade goods from developing countries to richer nations within the Commonwealth and worldwide.

Meanwhile, The Gaia Foundation actively promotes fair trade by supporting fair trade practices and industries, creating awareness about fair trade and by providing information and possibilities for networking with other environmental NGOs and fair trade organisations within the Commonwealth.

Fair trade products currently on display at The Gaia Foundation include Cafédirect medium roast instant coffee from Costa Rica and Cafédirect 100 per cent organic decafinated coffee from Peru, ground coffee from Africa and Central America, a selection of teas from Kenya and Sri Lanka and 60 per cent fruit-content mango jam from Kenya as well as delicious chocolate and sugar. Such fair trade products are available at The Gaia Foundation's Elysium Centre in Ghajn Tuffieha.

If you would like to find out more about eco-friendly and fair trade products available at Gaia, and possibly purchase some for yourself, your family or your business, you are welcome to visit the Elysium Centre at The Gaia Foundation in Ghajn Tuffieha (round the corner from Apple's Eye Restaurant near Golden Sands) between Tuesdays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For further information you can call on 2158 4473 or visit the website www.projectgaia.org.

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