WWF in Hong Kong
Background
The current ‘round’ of trade talks (launched in 2001) has been dubbed the ‘development round' and was aimed at delivering fairer trade terms for the poorest countries in the world. However divisions between the developed and developing world over issues such as agricultural subsidies and tariffs mean that it is highly unlikely that the Hong Kong meeting will produce a framework for a new agreement on trade that would make current rules favour developing countries. Developed countries are also pursuing an aggressive agenda demanding increased access for their exports to developing countries – with a particular focus on market access for non-agricultural goods and services.
Why is WWF there?
WWF is in Hong Kong because international trade rules are critical in determining the way the international community responds to a range of other challenges -- climate change, deforestation, freshwater shortages, overfishing. The right trade rules will help to relieve systemic threats to the poor and the environment. The wrong trade rules will exacerbate the threats and undermine progress on sustainable development. For example, if Brazil is to move ‘up the value chain’ – away from basing its export led growth on the production of soy and towards the export of higher-value and more sustainable technologies like bio diesel engines, then it is international trade rules which will provide the conditions for this.
What are WWF’s key messages?
Our key message is that if we are to tackle the series of challenges confronting the world today – from poverty to biodiversity loss or climate change – then we need to recognise the key role that trade rules play. We need to move to a situation where trade rules are shaped specifically to serve the needs of international strategies to tackle these problems.
WWF will be looking for commitments from WTO members that international trade rules should be seen as instruments for the pursuit of sustainable development, and that the current liberalization agenda does not in itself deliver on this.
We are also working on some areas where we see specific scope for such progress:
- The meeting will represent a critical juncture in the current talks on fishing subsidies, and a test of the WTO's ability to shape its subsidy rules in a way that puts the needs of sustainable fisheries first. Trade ministers should agree on rules that effectively prohibit fishing subsidies that contribute to excess capacity and over fishing, taking into account needs and concerns of developing countries.
- There should be no ‘list-based’ approach to negotiations on environmental goods and services. Trade ministers should move beyond negotiating a simplistic ‘list’-based approach in identifying environmental goods and services for increased trade. A list-based approach (classing anything from yachts to organic potatoes as ‘environmental goods’) may actually undermine progress on sustainable development in the long-term – for example where an ‘end-of-pipe’ solution to a pollution problem extends the lifetime of a fundamentally unsustainable industry. Rather, discussions should focus on how liberalisation of trade in particular goods and services could contribute, in a strategic and context-specific way, to meeting global challenges.
- There should be recognition that the effect of subsidies in interfering with markets - ‘trade distortiveness’ - is not the right criterion for judging the legitimacy of agricultural subsidy regimes (all subsidies will distort trade in some way, and there will be some circumstances under which those distortions which favour sustainable development – either poor producers or the environment – will be desirable).
What will WWF be doing?
WWF has organised a series of events:
- A high level ministerial event at which ministers from Brazil, Chile, European Communities (EC), New Zealand, Philippines, Senegal and the US will stand together to make brief individual statements in support of achieving a successful outcome to the current fishing subsidies talks. This media event, which will be co-sponsored by UNEP, aims to raise public awareness and recognise the role of several governments that have thus far played such vital roles in the fishing subsidies negotiations. Dec. 14, 2005 11:00-11:45 am, Theater I WTO HK Press Centre
- An invitation only workshop with participation from Ministry of Commerce of China, focussing on a longer-term perspective on improving market access for ‘environmental goods and services’. The event aims to provide a platform to ensure that the voices of emerging economies are heard on sustainable development Dec. 14 13:30-16:00, Provisionally, Room 407, NGO Centre
- A panel discussion on fishing subsidies jointly organised with UNEP to discuss the current state of play in the WTO negotiations focussing on some of the key challenges and opportunities WTO members face in developing effective and meaningful disciplines on fisheries subsidies. Dec. 15 10:00-13:00 Room C, NGO Centre, HK
The WWF team
James P Leape - Director General of WWF International (on the 14th December)
Gordon Shepherd – WWF-International (Head of Delegation) gshepherd@wwfint.org
Aimee Gonzales – WWF-International agonzales@wwfint.org
David Schorr – WWF-US davidkschorr@msn.com
Dennis Pamlin – WWF-Sweden dennis@pamlin.net
Eivind Hoff – WWF-EPO ehoff@wwfepo.org
John Kornerup Bang – WWF-Denmark j.bang@wwf.dk
Peng Lei – WWF-China LPeng@wwfchina.org
Sabine Granger - WWF-International sgranger@wwfint.org
Tanya Dragger – WWF Germany draeger@wwf.de
Tom Crompton – WWF-UK tcrompton@wwf.org.uk
