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doha diary

report from the wto meeting in qatar

thursday 8 november 2001:
My first stop upon arrival in Doha, Qatar: the NGO and press accreditation centre. It strikes me that the Qatari people still dress in traditional clothes whilst their surroundings are marked by US fast food chains and other symbols of the economic globalization. At the press centre, the news is that a Qatari started to shoot at a US military airbase after the US delegation, including Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, arrived yesterday. The media is informed that the man was mentally sick and was immediately shot by Qatari authorities.

In the evening, I facilitate the first “Our World is Not for Sale” NGO coalition meeting. We share information about what has happened so far, about the official political procedures for the ministerial, and about problems we face as NGOs in Doha. The decisions of governments to hold the WTO Ministerial in Qatar -- where less than 100 NGO representatives are allowed to enter the country under strict security measures -- is scandalous and unacceptable. Furthermore, the few NGOs in Doha are not informed about the agenda of the ministerial or about press events in the conference centre. Likewise, the media is not informed about our events held in the NGO centre. Focus on the Global South, Greenpeace, FoEI and others plan a small action to take place before the opening of the Ministerial the following morning that will highlight the fact that NGOs have no voice in the WTO. Vice, our WTO programme officer from FoE Philippines and Bertram from FoE Netherlands arrive later in the evening to join our team.

friday 9 november 2001
Transportation is a nightmare in Doha. Buses take you from the hotel to an assembly point, and from there you are transported to the conference centre. This takes at least an hour. The FoEI team is spread all over town, so it is no surprise that neither media nor NGOs turn up for the 8 am NGO press conference with French farmer José Bové. Later, Oxfam highlights the issue of access to medicine. The media often picks up one theme to its benefit and to the detriment of other issues. And so Doha is marked by interest in access to medicines and the marginal role of NGOs in the conference, while other campaign issues fight for recognition.

Vice, Bertram and I have a first meeting early in the morning to coordinate activities: today we will issue a press release on the draft ministerial declaration, hold a press conference, participate in action preparations for the opening event, follow a European NGO coordination meeting, a meeting with the Dutch delegation, an EU press briefing and a WTO event on sustainable development, and help organize the NGO coordination meeting in the evening.

At the European press briefing at noon, I feel sick hearing the EU praise its wonderful role in the WTO. I quickly run to recirculate the joint FoE Europe/Confédération Paysanne Européene/Oxfam Solidarity press statement: the title is "EU Position at Doha Ministerial Threatens Development, Food Security, Environmental Sustainability and Democracy”. This does not make the EU very happy and puts negotiators under some pressure.

Later, Vice speaks on the issue of sustainable development and the environment with the chair of the WTO Committee on Trade and Environment, a European Commissioner, an Indian official and WWF. The debate focuses on whether or not environment should be part of the WTO work programme. Some very interesting discussion points are raised by India, which is totally opposed to the inclusion of environment in the negotiations. These are discussions we also need to have in our international network. The European Commission will organize daily NGO briefings on various issues, including environment, development and health. The first one is held today on development issues. News from FoE Bangladesh and I both ask Commission officials how they can speak about development without mentioning sustainability aspects.

At 5 p.m., NGOs silently gather and hold up A4 sheets saying “NO VOICE IN THE WTO” shortly before the official plenary starts. When asked by the media what we want, we shout "DEMOCRACY!" The media loves it and we get quite some coverage.

At 7 p.m., some 70 NGO representatives gather to discuss the current state of affairs. Lori Wallach from Public Citizen reports that the US will be negotiating with an empty hand. The Bush administration does not have “fast track” legislation from the US Congress, and thus will not be bound to any commitments it makes in Doha. The EU is no less duplicitous. According to some African delegates who were present during a private informal meeting yesterday, the EU reportedly offered 50 million euros as aid in exchange for agreement from those present to the launch of a new comprehensive trade round. When asked whether this was an attempt to bribe African countries, EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy allegedly merely smiled.

saturday 10 november 2001
Today FoEI Vice Chair Tony will join our team. We issue and circulate two press releases today: the fist one is our general critique of the WTO Ministerial, called "WTO Dubs WTO Ministerial Sale of the Century". The second one is called “Of Money and Empty Promises". We also inform the media about the hundreds of decentralized events targeting the WTO that are taking place all over the world today; in total, there are more protestors on the streets today than were present in Seattle! The message is that governments can run away, but they can not hide.

On this second day of negotiations, we highlight the fact that sustainable development is marginalized in the negotiations and public discussions. We issue a press release with WWF and Greenpeace outlining our joint demands.

In the evening we do a second spontaneous action. Shortly before US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick begins his press briefing, around 40 activists hold up pamphlets saying "No Arm Twisting". Despite our loud protest, we are allowed to continue demonstrating.

sunday 11 november 2001
At noon we do an action in the press tent to show our opposition to the corporate-driven agenda of EU Trade Commissioner Lamy and US Trade Representative Zoellick. Tony plays a CEO, Jose Bové is Pascal Lamy and Bertram is Zoellick. The idea is to show how big business pulls Lamy and Zoellick's strings, and how developing countries (played by Walden Bello from Focus on the Global South) are threatened and offered bribes to agree to investment and to not oppose the TRIPS agreements. Civil society members , including Lori Wallach, Vandana Shiva, Maude Barlow and myself hold up signs and chant slogans: "Our world is not for sale, no new round, don't sell off our public services, stop the GATS, we want greener trade,” and so on and so forth.

At the official briefing this morning, I had heard that there might be some hope that that the EU will stand firm on the environment and give away the so called Singapore issues – investment, competition, government procurement and trade facilitation. These issues are still fiercely opposed by a number of developing countries. So our strategy is to push for environment and against the new issues.

At our strategy meeting that evening, we decide to do an action the next day that will underline the biopiracy aspects of the TRIPS agreement. Vice, Bertram and I review our press strategy: until now we have had interviews with over 30 different media sources. Late in the evening, Vice and I start to work on concrete language to be submitted to negotiators.

monday 12 november 2001
Today is our last chance for concrete input into the declaration before a new draft is released tomorrow morning. As we already have heard that the US fiercely opposes any mention of the precautionary principle and eco-labelling, and that many developing countries would like to see the deletion of all language referring to environmental protection, the EU is likely to backtrack on the environment. From internal EU sources we hear that the EU has prepared various fallback options. Time for FoE Europe to issue a sharp press release called "EU Plans to Dump the Environment". Our press release causes a stir amongst negotiators.

At a 2 p.m. NGO briefing, chief EU trade negotiator Lamy still argues that he will pursue the whole package of new negotiation items. This threat could lead to a collapse of the talks: developing countries have stated again and again that they cannot accept so many new issues.

tuesday 13 november 2001
Today, just a couple of hours before the conference is supposed to end, a new draft text is released. The environmental text has been expanded but is mostly in brackets. So we issue a press release: "Draft Declaration Trades Away the Environment." We outline our concerns that, if adopted, the current draft declaration could pose greater threats to the effectiveness of multilateral environmental agreements, continue to subsidize industrial farming practices, lead to further deforestation, continue to promote biopiracy, etc.

On services, the US has succeeded in getting text into the declaration that would launch negotiations in so-called "environmental goods and services". This would open the door for the transfer of end-of-pipe technologies and further liberalization in the collection and distribution of water services. FoE US sends through a press release that calls on the US to withdraw this proposal.

It becomes clear that the talks will continue through the night. Although the chairman has announced that negotiations need to be wrapped up as soon as possible, member countries egoistically pursue their own free trade agendas. Everyone starts to prepare their own analysis of the final outcome. At 2 a.m. we hear that a new draft text will appear at 6.30 the next morning. Some of us to go to bed for a few hours before the talks wind up.

wednesday 14 november 2001
Many people have stayed up the whole night to follow the latest developments. At 8 am, the WTO gives a media press briefing for journalists, who are tired and upset that they get so little information about what is going on. We are told that a new draft text has been prepared, and it is now being translated. An hour later, inside sources help us to get hold of the text. As the different trading partners are sticking to their positions, we assess that the time is ripe for a renewed collapse of trade talks.

But negotiations continue, and we get bad news. The APC countries have received a waiver for their special trade relations and are no longer opposed to new issues. India seems to be isolated. The EU and the WTO Director General– both pushing to launch a broad-based new round – hold secret bilateral meetings to put pressure on India. We prepare three different press releases for the final outcome of the conference. The process ends only at 7 p.m. in an official plenary session where the WTO declaration is approved. But attached to it is a special note that underlines that the new issues will only be negotiated beginning at the 5 ^th WTO Ministerial declaration based on an EXPLICIT consensus.

Hooray! Negotiations on the new issues are not yet launched, and the sustainable development language is much stronger. The EU starts to disseminate their press releases and claim that sustainable development and environment are the major victories of Doha. We issues a press release called "New Trade Round Shrinks: Sustainable Development Still Under Threat." Even if the environmental text looks like a big step for the negotiators, the liberalization measures foreseen in a number of areas can mean more damage than protection. Much work remains to be done.

Alexandra Wandel, FoE Europe.