Hanging on to the underbelly of the United States of America geographically, is Mexico. In its city of Cancun – a beach resort on its eastern tip – will open the 5th Ministerial Conference of WTO member countries from 10th September this year. Metaphorically speaking, ironically WTO lies where Mexico geographically lies.

What is to happen at the Cancun meet? More concessions for imperialist countries to loot the markets of third world. More attacks on the products and thereby the producers of the largely agrarian economies of countries like India. This is in line with the perspective of WTO to make production a monopoly of the imperialist world. No addressing to the issues of concern to third world – rather withdrawal of the lip service paid earlier in the name of “human face” and “equitable development” (between unequally developed countries!). Even more serious, a threat of expansion of the scope of WTO to further shrink the role of comprador governments as conduits of imperialist exploitation. The space for MNCs will be increased, so as to bring more aspects of the economic life of ‘developing countries’ (the term used by WTO drafts for third world countries) into their direct control.

These are the promises Cancun holds; no matter in what technical or ‘equitable’ language it is couched. What else could be expected when the European Union Trade Commissioner was categorical that without the agenda of expansion of WTO (the Singapore issues – explained later) there will be no Cancun meet. All wraps of niceties are being torn away – a US Pharma Giant’s representative was indignant at the concessions being sought under Special and Differential Treatment (S&DT) for developing and least developed countries’ public health emergencies. “Hundreds of pharma patents are the property of US companies”, he maintained.

Why then, is the Indian Govt. going to Cancun? Why are its two Aruns – Shourie and Jaitley, privatizers of PSUs, one the seller of BALCO and ex-employee of World Bank, the other General Secretary of BJP for a while and now Commerce Minister of the Govt. – racing from press conference to press conference with even more energy than Murasoli Maran to ‘defend India’s interests’ at WTO? Why go to Cancun when it is clear even to them that there is further threat in store to India’s economic interests from imperialists? The threat to India’s interests is also sourced in the abject surrender of this Govt. and of the entire comprador ruling classes before the interests and diktats of imperialism.

The Agenda at Cancu

The Cancun Round was originally slated to be a midterm review of the Doha Round of 2001. Essentially, a trade liberalization round, Doha was propagated as a ‘Development Round’. In keeping with this myth, imperialist countries kept issues affecting developing countries – like Implementation issues, like Special and Differential Treatment issue – on the agenda. A Declaration on Public Health had been announced there. There were no new concessions in it – it was essentially a specific restatement of a provision in the TRIPs agreement on public health emergencies. Extracting their pound of flesh, however, US and EU thus ensured that Singapore issues (i.e. extension of WTO agenda) would be discussed at Cancun. This is actually the only real agenda.

Discussions were also there at Doha on other issues like further liberalization of industrial tariffs on some products of export interest to developing countries. But mostly, the design in such moves was to pacify people’s anger in third world countries against the effects of WTO dictated policies at home, thereby taking attention off from the inclusion of Singapore issues. This is proved because in the 18 months from Doha to Cancun not a single milestone has been crossed in the deadlines due for completion by imperialist countries.

There cannot be any progress. Because on no issue of trade liberalization will the developed countries implement anything detrimental to themselves. And all the concessions made were only part of the general platitudes uttered at the time of signing of Dunkel Draft. They are certainly not for implementation, when the very reason for forming WTO was to facilitate further control of third world countries’ markets by MNCs.

The huge agenda drawn up by the trade ministers at Doha for Cancun covered agriculture, industrial tariffs, services, environment, S&DT, implementation of past deadlines, subsidies, anti-dumping duties, and of course the extension of WTO. However, the draft released for the Cancun Meet only carries the various headings and subheadings as no agreement is there on the various texts. The entire text then, is to be filled in later, in the course of last ditch negotiations!

Agriculture and Cancun

At the time when GATT Agreement was signed in 1994, it was decided that negotiations for further liberalization in agricultural produce, and also a scrutiny of issues arising from implementing the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) Section, would start on 1st January 2000. But in Doha meeting also, not only was such discussion further postponed for Cancun, but it was put into the agenda for ‘negotiations’ and not ‘implementation’.

The contentious issues in the AoA need recapitulation in order to comprehend what will be on at Cancun. This Agreement is loaded in favour of the US. While both US and Europe heavily subsidize agricultural production, the AoA does not much touch subsidies in vogue in US. It, however, hits out at those in European Union and in Japan. Thus it favours domination of food-grain market by US of even other imperialist countries. EU needs its subsidies to “keep products competitive and to secure a good income for their producers.” (New Democracy, September 1993) US agricultural produce works out cheaper than that of EU, and an important reason for AoA targeting EU-type subsidies, is the US hope of capturing their market. The WTO Agreement, as it stands, only slashes subsidies in the ‘amber’ box, whereby EU would have to slash around $42 billion worth, US around $19 billion worth subsidies. Still, there are only hardly a third of what subsidies the two titans provide.

Meanwhile, the Cairns Group of agricultural produce exporting countries (like Australia, Brazil, Thailand, Malaysia) have their hopes pinned on decrease in import tariffs of both US and EU.

Thus, the issue of implementation of WTO in Agriculture has been deadlocked on these aspects – the slashing of subsidies of EU as desired by US, and the cutting of import tariffs on agricultural produce by both the titans. It will continue to be deadlocked. Neither will cut their import tariffs. As the AoA stands, it is the interest of EU and Japan and even South Korea (right from 1994) that agriculture should be outside the purview of WTO. This is the genesis of the “WTO shrink or sink” slogan repeated by NGOs in India and also some ex-PMs, as though WTO is not against other aspects of economic interests of third world countries!

Taken together, the EU and US provide around $300 billion annual subsidies to their agriculture. They impose high import duties on specific farm products. OECD countries (thirty developed countries) give subsidies of nearly $360 billion per annum (Rs. 1.8 lakh crore) for agriculture. These are as government funded pesticides, spray operations, subsidized inputs, export subsidies, and cash payments to farmers to keep farms barren to prevent excessive produce (decoupled income support) and also ‘Regional Assistance Programmes’. US gives direct cash assistance, medical support etc.

The US superpower, into recession, with an annual budget deficit of about $500 billion, is estimated to have a food-grain excess worth around $15 billion. For it, further agricultural liberalization of others, especially the vast third world, has significant importance.

Hence, assigning the question of implementation of past agreements to the dustbin for now, the EU and US have temporarily again submerged their differences and brought out a joint draft for Cancun (The Common Agricultural Policy). This draft allows both to continue their subsidies and import duties, but proposes a cut on custom duties on products they want to export. This is seasoned with a lukewarm promise to cut their own export subsidies. The WTO Commissioner for Agriculture mildly mooted a proposal allowing third world countries to preserve some tariffs for their ‘Strategic Products’. This was rejected outright by US.

Already countries like India have obligingly implemented the last letter of the stipulations of AoA. Even rich farmers have been forced to protest. Small and marginal farmers have been further mired towards pauperization. Usury in India is on the rise in the rural areas, suicides common. Further liberalization will be a death knell for food-grain production – of course that is what it is meant to be.

Nettled by the US-EU draft, some of the Cairns Group (e.g. Argentina, Brazil, Thailand) along with large agricultural countries like India, China (and also Mexico) have brought an alternative proposal. It is a mixed bag to defend the interests of the two types of countries involved. There is no declaration from the Govt. of India that it will firmly stand by this proposal. However, it is using this opportunity to show off its ‘pro-farmer’ stance in an election year!

The alternate draft calls for imperialist countries to cut all their domestic subsidies, to lower import tariffs on products of export interest to developing countries, to give developing countries the right to protect certain identified crops as ‘Strategic Products’ from import concessions. The twenty one (21) signatories are together responsible for 60% of the world’s rice production and 35% of wheat production. This gives an idea of the vast markets the US is hankering to capture.

Special and Differential Treatment – the Fate of Public Health

A much-publicised ‘benefit’ of the Doha Round for countries like ours was the Declaration on Public Health and TRIPs in 2001. It allowed countries to issue licensing to domestic companies to produce local copies of patented drugs for public health emergencies. The ink had hardly dried before the US Pharma Giants ensured roll back of the same. Now once again, as a ‘concession’ to least developing countries (“could not fail to be touched” by the request of African countries, said the Brazilian ambassador), a ‘new’ agreement has been sealed by the WTO General Council in the countdown to Cancun. It is supposed to be the ‘gesture magnificent’, the spirit of “goodwill and good conscience”.

“Poor countries” (by which is probably implied their category of least developed countries) are to be allowed to import cheap copies of patented drugs (i.e. generic drugs) to fight killer diseases like AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. An eight-month deadlock (since 16th December, 2002) has been triumphantly declared broken. The Director General of WTO has hailed it as showing “full use of the flexibilities of WTO’s intellectual property rules” by poor countries.

It is difficult to fight a worldwide hype by vested interests of governments and MNCs out to make fools of people. Comprador governments could hardly have gone back to uphold WTO with nothing to show on this concrete ‘human issue’ of Doha. But what really has been achieved?

It can no longer be concealed that the TRIPs Agreement on medicines was designed to allow MNCs to eat up better profits, that these higher prices would be paid for by developing countries and that drug prices would rise worldwide. However, it always had a clause of Special and Differential Treatment: that countries facing public health emergencies could issue compulsory licenses to domestic companies to produce cheaper (i.e. generic) versions of patented drugs.

The question arose – What would happen in those countries that did not have infrastructure for manufacture of drugs – unlike India and Brazil, but like most African countries? This was to be settled by WTO by 2002.

In the Doha meet of 2001, the essentials of the TRIPs concession was stated in a Declaration on Public Health, and almost immediately restricted, by the US mainly, to three specific diseases – AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis – to appease its Pharma MNCs. Despite this, they refused to be appeased and hence the entire issue has stood deadlocked. [An important argument of the MNCs was that countries like Brazil and India, where generic drug manufacture is being done, would misuse this to ‘break’ patents.]

The new agreement has addressed the unanswered aspect of the old TRIPs agreement, and has provided for imports of medicines for only three diseases. This restriction is applicable to the ‘least developed’ category. Other public health emergencies here – droughts and floods, gastro-intestinal diseases that kill on large scale, other outbreaks of tropical diseases, like plague – all common in such countries have been effectively deleted. Secondly, many strings have been attached. An application has to be made before WTO that the medicines cannot be manufactured in the importer country and the exporter country also has to comply with some provisions, leaving huge scope for contests by MNCs. Thirdly, the ‘Best Product’ (BP) yardstick will apply – the drugs so sent by the exporter country have to look different, be packed different etc. from routine products. Ostensibly this is so that they are identifiable and cannot be diverted into the market. Producers of bulk generic drugs in developing countries depend on large volumes and easy packaging to make up for the small profit margins. Application of ‘BP scale’ will eat into this margin and make production pointless – the whole aim of the MNCs. Then the option with the importer country will be to go to the MNCs – either for patented drugs or for somewhat cheaper generic products.

The scale of profits involved can be visualized by noting that, for example, the annual cost regime of patented drugs for AIDS works out to $10,000 per patient. What chance is there for treatment of patients in Africa, 2.2 million of whom are said to have died of AIDS since 16th December 2002 alone! Use of generic drugs produced in India can bring down this cost to about $350 a year – so Indian Pharma companies had claimed in 2000.

The position of the Indian Govt. is as usual one of subservience to imperialism. A third amendment to the Patent Act 1969 to review the safeguards of compulsory licensing in view of MNCs’ complaints is already under preparation to be placed before Parliament. Meanwhile US MNCs are demanding inclusion of food items and fine chemicals in the Patent regime!

There was a decision in the Doha Round on S&DT, to review 80 such measures in the GATT Treaty. The objective stated was to make them more precise, effective and operational. It also spoke of making mandatory those provisions that had been left as non-binding. Not surprisingly, there is now no such talk.

Similarly, Implementation issues were to be placed at Cancun. This was to “redress imbalances and inequalities” implicit in the GATT Agreement, or any that may have emerged so during these years. All inequalities that are there are pro-imperialist; no third world country, led by compradors as they are, has dared to ‘non-implement ’. What can happen to this agenda? – that is what is happening. WTO is about two rules for two types of countries – the looters and the looted.

What are Singapore Issues?

These constitute the truly dangerous agenda in store at Cancun. They are being pushed through by the EU and are supported by US and Japan.

These issues have to do with the realm of governance more intimately. They are designed to further sequester comprador governments and extend control through MNCs on essential sectors. In agriculture, they are designed to kill production of agro-products and food-grains in developing countries.

These issues extend the ‘national obligation’ (which means, makes it binding on governments) on four items:– (i) Foreign Investment: Every government must guarantee to facilitate it. (ii) Competition Policies: i.e., governments will not restrict any sector for themselves. Thus all sectors under essential services must be opened up to MNCs, or, the PSUs should ‘compete’ with the MNCs! In India it means MNCization of power generation – not just of distribution, and of drinking water provision, for example. It means a virtual shutdown of PSUs in essential services. (iii) Transparency in Government Procurement: meaning that end to procurement prices for various items being fixed, end to policy of Minimum Support Price so essential to sustain indigenous agriculture in India. It essentially means imports in governmental purchases, whether of crops, or products especially agro-products. This will in turn also mean that purchasing of crops for PDS from our own farmers will virtually end, further crippling what PDS has survived the assault of AoA. (iv) Trade Facilitation: i.e., modification of custom tariffs and decreasing them by developing countries will facilitate MNCs in government procurements, and further throttle production capacity of developing countries.

As it is, the cut in custom tariffs in food-grains (as proposed by the US-EU Draft on Agriculture) which is bound to be forced, will probably deluge India with ‘cheap’ food-grains. Further cut in custom tariffs on agro-products will be lethal. Already with tariff cuts, our situation in other sectors is an example of what lies ahead. From being a net exporter of vegetables, we import the same now. India was self-sufficient in edible oils. Now heavy imports are being done from MNCs located in Indonesia, Brazil, Thailand and Argentina. Oil seed farmers in India as also the solvent extraction industry are in the grip of severe crisis.

Singapore issues will, for instance, ensure India’s curd (dahi) market worth $2.5 billion, its paneer market worth another $375 million, its $1.5 billion worth milk market, $131 million worth butter and cheese market, its $5.6 billion worth growing market of dairy sweets – all will be under threat from MNC Giants in Dairy Products. Already, after creating an artificial panic about milk scarcity in the capital for a few days, the Govt. of India is going to import milk powder ‘to upgrade reserves’. This is the country which is the largest milk producer of the world! And such a small proportion of our population is in a financial position to consume milk or any of these milk products.

From this itself the stunning impact on the third world of the Singapore issues can be assessed. Entry of MNC dairies, MNC processed food industries, apart from crop imports, are surely going to really change cropping patterns. Farmers will shift from non-remunerative grain production to growing fodder for MNC dairies, flowers for their markets or for perfume production, fruits for their agro-industries. For essential food-grains we will be at the mercy of the imperialist countries, eventually, and this is one aim of course. So much for India’s touted ‘self-sufficiency in food-grains’. Farmers will mortgage land to corporates (already on), they will obtain seeds and inputs from MNCs to grow items for their industries at predetermined, low profit rates. Ban on government fixing support prices will anyway hurt production, but entry of MNCs will be there into our grain markets. The price depression will be unbearable for rich farmers too, will hit hard their savings and even land holdings. Rise of usury will mean rise in land alienation; no doubt slowly imperialist banks will be the biggest landowners!

The closure of PSUs in essential services or their MNCization will mean unbearable price rise for the common man. Unemployment will rise, or re-employment with loss of job security with the MNC masters will result. A large section of the population of developing countries, living on the fringes as it is, will simply fall out of the purview of supply of essential services. The spectre of fully privatized (MNCized) drinking water, with common people having no access to this natural resource to quench their thirst, communities losing control over their rivers – this is no abstract projection but became the living reality of Bolivia. Here a people’s upsurge drove back the MNC.

We must mark that there has been not a single assertion by the government or by the major ruling class parties of India, no discussion in Parliament, no commitment that India will not concede on the question of expanding the scope of WTO. Rather under the false propaganda of “have to remain in WTO”, India will be told by our compradors once again “of the lack of options”. Already Indian Govt. is bargaining with the US Govt., is willing to agree to Transparency in Procurement and Custom Tariff Withdrawals (on which US has firmly stated that there will be no compromise, despite pleas by other third world countries to have a two tariff system – one for imperialists and one for others) if US will not oppose withdrawal of other two items (which are of interest to EU). Govt. of India has ridiculed itself to the level of stating (by Arun Jaitley) that the provision on procurements is ‘benign’! There are in reality, no lack of options but only lack of political will.

Industrial Tariffs and other Issues

On these tariffs too, despite the non-implementation of Doha negotiations, no imperialist country is going to implement even a sentence of the various provisions applicable to them. Neither are the anti-people governments of third world countries likely to force the situation. Already US, EU and Japan, along with Canada, have stalled negotiations (which should have been over by now) on some industrial products whose trade has to be liberalized. Some of the seven products initially targeted were items useful for third world countries. They could export them into developed countries and give their own producers a fillip. Tariffs on these were to be eliminated without option in three phases (10% in first phase, maintenance of this in the second and fully cut in the third phase). The items were textile and clothing (of great advantage to countries of South Asia esp. India and the deadlines of which the US has been staunchly resisting to protect its cotton textile industry), gems and precious stones, leather goods, footwear, electrical goods, motor vehicle parts and components, fish and fish-products and, finally, electronic goods. Some of these items are of export interest to Japan, which can swamp out others, but US is not interested in facilitating entry of such items.

Several issues of concern to India, and likely, to other such countries, have simply fallen out of the draft. These include the dumping of cheap goods into Indian markets by rich countries, and also the twisting of the provisions of anti-dumping laws by US to harm India’s steel trade. Both US and EU are harming the trade concerns and export capacity of India by misusing issues like environmental pollution, child labour, core labour standard provisions and even human rights’ abuse. Thus was carpet export from India to western countries targeted, by raising fingers about child labour and worker exploitation. They have not ended up improving the conditions of such labour – rather, may have harmed it by hitting their markets!

Imperialist countries are seeking comprehensive market access in areas of services. Third world countries are usually not in a position to utilize such access. Rather, the inflow of MNCs into their own sectors will drown local small scale service suppliers, lead to job losses, rise in prices for services, and also sequestering of Govt. owned services. India has interest in seeking access under Mode IV of service supply i.e. movement of skilled personnel. It is known that Govt. has decided to ‘allow’ (i.e. it will bow into subservience with no protest) liberalization under Mode III which the imperialists are seeking. The logic is that India will be able to ‘extract reciprocal gain’ under Mode IV. What a myth! This is the willing blindness of compradors. The whole world knows that even access offered by imperialists at time of Doha for movement of skilled personnel was very limited, and further, tied to all sorts of conditionalities. The idea of ‘GATS visa’ was blocked by US. The US in Doha had agreed to provide H-I visa to 65,000 personnel for India out of an overall 2 lakh such visas. Not only is there no move to expand this number. Since 11/9, all sorts of restrictions on travel in the name of ‘security’ is blocking entry of even this number. Economic recession and relocations have led to job losses in US, but there is hysterical and chauvinistic reaction there that foreigners, especially Asians, are eating up their jobs. Actually such highly trained personnel from other countries continue to face discrimination and lesser remuneration as compared to American citizens.

Why is Indian Govt. Going to Cancun?

The various myths of WTO as an equitable institution, of globalization as a desired necessity and inevitability, of fair play and justice under WTO – are well on their way to being punctured totally. Both due to urgency of loot due to the ever deepening imperialist crisis and the real need for new markets, as well as overconfidence and reckoning without people’s ability to fight back, the imperialists have taken off all velvet gloves and bared their fangs. Revolutionary Communist Parties world over had characterized WTO thus, at its very inception. Now even common people, by seeing the effects of WTO diktats, are acquiring clarity. The apologists of WTO are nowadays stressing ‘there is no alternative’ (TINA) rather than eulogizing its effects.

It is becoming increasingly evident in India that an independent, people-oriented path of development is needed. The slogan of Quit WTO is gaining acceptance. Due to rise in inter-imperialist contradictions as seen in Iraq War, due to back breaking pressure on people domestically, and due to exposure of US military intentions – comprador governments are no longer able to hide realities.

Like their predecessor governments, this government and its ministers are also tamely going to accept imperialist diktats. Their press conference and their meetings with various political parties are all eyewash for public consumption in an election year. In truth, Indian Govt. is going to Cancun because in the ruling classes – including the revisionists CPI and CPI(M) whose trade union leaders sat for ‘consultations’ with the two Ministers – there is no second thought over handing India over for loot. However, to appropriate the anticipated anger of people against their imminent, inevitable betrayal, organizations sponsored by the ruling BJP held a ‘Quit WTO’ Rally in the Capital. How they thundered against their own government!

We must recall India’s Commerce Minister Pranab Mukherjee, swearing under Congress rule that WTO would facilitate India’s agriculture. In the pre-Doha phase, Murasoli Maran exhumed sound, fury and confidence. Defence of India’s interests was proclaimed. How badly was it compromised! The same will happen now. The only breathing space for third world countries can be if the big two – US and EU – fail to genuinely ‘pull together’.

The situation for the country and people is deteriorating too fast. Rampant rising indebtedness in the countryside, crippling of what industrial capacity was there, hunger and marginalization of the majority is on. India must boycott Cancun, try to mobilize other third world countries, and quit WTO. The Cancun meet will only hasten transfer of control over over our economies directly into the hands of imperialists through MNCs. Calls for removing agriculture alone from WTO purview, for remaining in WTO and simply defying it, are all prevarications. Not part or section alone is enough – we must throw out WTO. For this, the struggle against the comprador ruling classes has to be intensified along with, and WTO dictated policies must be beaten back from implementation.

Postscript

Cancun Collapses

(The preceding article was written before Vth Ministerial Meeting of WTO at Cancun. However, in the meantime, Cancun Meeting was closed without any agreement. Here we are printing a postscript to make a brief comment on what has been universally acknowledged as Cancun collapse.            – Editor)

Peasants, workers and common people throughout the third world have reasons to rejoice over the devastation of the Cancun Meeting. The meeting was finally called off by the Commissioner when no single point of agreement at all could be reached. As a face saving device a short, six-point, ministerial declaration saying nothing was adopted.

Thanks to WTO also, lakhs of jobs have been lost in the world, millions of farmers are on the verge of devastation, hundreds of millions of youth have never held a job in the past ten years. These are the simmering cauldrons which forced the hands of the comprador third world governments at Cancun to resist imperialist attack on the little space left for them. Especially the African countries, driven into a corner by the serious economic collapse in agriculture facing even relatively better off economies, led the demand of the third world countries’ governments for some gains. The situation was aided by the gap between the so-called ‘agreed positions’ of US, EU and Japan.

The collapse of the talks should clear remaining doubts in the third world that imperialist countries would rather even discard WTO and seek some other method of loot, than concede even an alphabet against their respective interests. This is amply clear from their stand on agriculture, on textile imports, on movement of labour and professionals and any number of other issues.

The Cancun proceedings concentrated on two issues as expected – Agriculture and Singapore issues. On Agriculture, Kenya and several other African countries, which used to have good cotton crops and perform adequately for themselves in the market, have now been devastated by the cut in their own subsidies without a cut in those of the US. (This imperialist heavily subsidizes cotton crop giving $4 billion per year to its 25,000 cotton farmers, i.e., Rs. 80 lakh per year per farmer in order to create a stranglehold on the cotton market.) Led by Kenya, four countries went all out for a fight for a cut in agricultural subsidies of US-EU. In the discussion on AoA, they brought a last minute document (ACP – African, Caribbean and Pacific Countries) addressing their concerns. Thus this formation stood firm against further subsidy slashes in the third world countries, seeing that US-EU were willing to concede nothing. On Agriculture, there was yet another draft by 21 countries.

Similarly, on Singapore issues, widely divergent positions emerged. US was anyway ready prior to Cancun to crucify EU’s interests if its own two points (transparency and custom withdrawal) were upheld. Countries like India became immediately ready to befriend US and dumped the EU’s two issues. Within Cancun talks, EU itself began to concede one point if the other was kept. Sensing the weakening positions, some countries went one way, some another, so that finally, as seen from the records of the meeting, countries outdid one another is speeches rejecting all four issues. The fate of Cancun was sealed with the walkout by poorest countries of the world in Africa, Asia and Caribbeans led by Kenya. To save the situation, the talks were called off and all issues postponed for the Geneva Meet three months hence. A short Ministerial statement, admitting a setback, has been issued.

The situation is ripe for Indian Govt. and in fact all third world govts. to act. Immediately, all WTO provisions which have been faithfully implemented must be withdrawn, and India should quit WTO. Indian newspapers and Govt. are indulging in self-adulation that Indian delegation “led” the third world at Cancun. However, news from Cancun suggests that the walkout by the least developed countries was equally prompted by disgust at the role of some of their own "third world allies". This especially referred to their inkling of the behind the back negotiations which were conducted by India, China and Brazil, who tried to strike their own deals with the US and EU in "green room talks". The poor countries apparently managed to disrupt the same, because major newspapers have reported that Jaitley, far from denying such a devious attempt, regretted that they had not been allowed to go to conclusion. In reality, after a while the fate of the Meeting was clear and third world governments like that of India were then performing for at least getting marks back home. But Indian Govt. and ruling classes are simply failing to see the writing on the wall. What are the relief measures government has been forced to announce in the wake of 95 suicides in August 2003 by Karnataka farmers? Withdrawal of power bills, subsidized seeds, subsidized pesticides, waver of interest on loans – all measures in practice which amount to withdrawing WTO dictated changes!

The Ministerial Statement

(Issued at the end of the Meeting)

1.   As we conclude our Fifth Ministerial Conference in Cancun, we would like to express our deep appreciation to the Government and people of Mexico for the excellent organization and warm hospitality we have received in Cancun.

2.   At this meeting we have welcomed Cambodia and Nepal as the first least-developed countries to accede to the WTO since its establishment.

3.   All participants have worked hard and constructively to make progress as required under the Doha mandates. We have, indeed, made considerable progress. However, more work needs to be done in some key areas to enable us to proceed towards the conclusion of the negotiations in fulfilment of the commitments we took at Doha.

4.   We therefore instruct our officials to continue working on outstanding issues with a renewed sense of urgency and purpose and taking fully into account all the views we have expressed in this Conference. We ask the Chairman of the General Council, working in close cooperation with the Director-General, to coordinate this work and to convene a meeting of the General Council at Senior Officials level no later than 15 December 2003 to take the action necessary at that stage to enable us to move towards a successful and timely conclusion of the negotiations. We shall continue to exercise close personal supervision of this process.

5.   We will bring with us into this new phase all the valuable work that has been done at this Conference. In those areas where we have reached a high level of convergence on texts, we undertake to maintain this convergence while working for an acceptable overall outcome.

6.   Notwithstanding this setback, we reaffirm all our Doha Declarations and Decisions and recommit ourselves to working to implement them fully and faithfully.

On the Call  of CPI(ML) Central Committee  : Countrywide Protest Demonstrations Against  WTO’s Cancun Meeting

In response to the call of the Central Committee of CPI(ML), party units throughout the country held protest programmes demanding that India should quit WTO and boycott Cancun Ministerial Meeting. CC had called for the protest week beginning with 3rd September culminating in mass programmes on September 9, 2003.   Accordingly, party units took up week long propaganda campaign and held demonstrations on September 9th, 2003.

In Punjab, mass demonstrations were held in seven centres namely Gurdaspur, Ludhiana, Nawashahr, Moga, Jalandhar, Kapurthala and Sangrur. Between two to three hundred people participated in these demonstrations which were addressed by the Party leaders.

In U.P. a demonstration was held at Allahabad in which over three hundred people participated. Demonstrations were also held in Thakurdwara (Moradabad), Dhampur (Bijnor), Ghaziabad and Bangarmau (Unnao). A big demonstration was held in Hardwar (Uttaranchal) on September 9 in which nearly four hundred people participated.

In Delhi as protest demonstration was planned on 9th against the visit of Israeli Prime Minister, a demonstration was held at Jantar Mantar on September 3rd, 2003 in which one hundred party activists participated. Demonstrators were addressed by Com. Aparna, Secretary of Delhi Committee, and leaders of mass organizations.

In other states as well, protest programmes were held in different districts to highlight party’s call to quit WTO. In Andhra Pradesh demonstrations held at district headquarters evoked good response and people participated in large numbers. Programmes were also held in Maharashtra, Orissa, West Bengal and other states.

On FAIG’s Call for Protest Action

Rallies in Patna & Hyderabad, Convention in Chandigarh and Dharna in Allahabad

Forum Against Imperialist Globalization (FAIG) gave a call for mass protests from September 10th to 14th on the demands that India quit WTO and boycott Cancun meeting.

On FAIG’s call a big protest demonstration was held in Patna in which over 5,000 people participated. Demonstrators assembled at Gandhi Maidan from where a rally was taken out which passed through Exhibition Road, Railway Station, Frazer Road and returned to Gandhi Maidan where a mass meeting was held. AIKMS and IFTU were among the mass organizations which participated in the demonstration in good strength.

Mass meeting was addressed by IFTU leader and Member of FAIG’s Coordination Committee, Com. Aparna and other central leaders of FAIG, Com. Darshan Pal and Com. Arvind Sinha, AIKMS Vice-President and Bihar FAIG’s Convenor Com. Prakash Das, Com. Nand Kishore Singh and Com. Shankar Vidyarthi. Other leaders who addressed the people included Com. V. K. Patole (IFTU), Com. Ashok Kumar (General Secretary, AIKMS Bihar State Committee) and Com. Arjun Prasad Singh (AIPRF).

On September 11, 2003 a rally and mass meeting was conducted in Hyderabad by Andhra Pradesh FAIG. Over 1,500 people participated in the rally and mass meeting held at Sundarayya Vigyan Kendram. AIKMS, IFTU, AIPRF, AIFTU, DBCRS and several other organizations participated. Participants included organizations of youth, women, students and writers.

Among those who addressed the meeting were All India Convenor of FAIG Com. Vemulapalli Venkataramaiah and Dr. K.R. Chowdhary while Com. G. Diwakar, Punna Rao, Venu and Parvathalu presided over the meeting.

At Allahabad, a day long dharna was held by FAIG on September 13th, 2003 in which nearly one hundred people participated. AIKMS was one of he participants in the Dharna.

On September 14th, Punjab FAIG organized a Convention at Chandigarh. Leaders of AIKMS, BKU (Ekta), Pedu Mazdoor Union, Punjab Students Union, Inquilabi Kendra, Punjab Radical Students’ Union, Milkmen Union and Kirti Mazdoor Union addressed the Convention. The speakers urged upon the Union Govt. to come out of WTO as it has proved to be an anti-people forum. They said that WTO has become synonymous with de-industrialization, ruination, uprootedness, pauperization, unemployment and job insecurity throughout the world.