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THE INSIDE SCOOP
For more than a decade AWI has reported on the
draconian trade rules governing global commerce: the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and
the monolithic World Trade Organization (WTO). Meanwhile, we have fought to
preserve animal protection rules and regulations against attempts to use trade
policies to undermine democratically-enacted humane laws.
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The WTO pushed Congress to
weaken America’s democratically-enacted law barring the import of dolphin-deadly
tuna. New Zealand International
Exclusive Tours
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As AWI prepares to attend the upcoming WTO
Ministerial Meeting in Cancun, Mexico from September 10-14, 2003, it is quite
clear that our efforts on behalf of all animals are needed now more than ever.
The premise of the WTO and its predecessors is
to “liberalize” trade between nations by progressively dropping tariffs and
other trade restrictions. However, in an effort to increase the free flow of
products across the globe, the WTO prevents import restrictions based on the
process by which a product is created and prevents any member country from
enacting legislation or regulations that treat one nation differently than
another. This has led to a remarkable roster of disputes under the WTO involving
dolphins, furbearers, and many other species.
Notably today, as food becomes an increasingly
global issue, trade disputes involving the international commerce in meat
products have increased exponentially: the U.S. and Australia have complained
about Korean restrictions on importing chilled beef; Hungary has complained
about Turkey’s import restrictions on pet food; the U.S. and Canada have
complained about European restrictions on the import of beef from animals given
growth hormones; Australia and New Zealand have complained about U.S.
restrictions on lamb imports; Poland has complained about high duties imposed on
pig meat imported into the Czech Republic; Brazil has challenged Argentina’s
rules on poultry imports; and a series of disputes have arisen over food from
the sea including salmon, swordfish, sardines, shrimp, and scallops.
The Cancun Ministerial Meeting will focus on
the issue of agricultural trade, giving animal welfare advocates an important
opportunity to advance our cause. The agriculture negotiations, for instance,
include expansion of an important concept called the “green box.” While the WTO
pushes governments to reduce or eliminate subsidies to domestic producers,
“green box” payments are certain subsidies that are protected from being cut.
To be in the green box, support must not be
trade distorting or only minimally so (cannot give domestic producers an unfair
advantage) and be supplied directly from the government to the producer (not
costs passed on to the consumer). This enables a government, for instance, to
provide support to agricultural producers for pest control, marketing services,
and research into environmental programs. Current negotiations include the
possibility of expanding the list of protected support to animal welfare
programs. A country such as Poland, for instance, could provide financial
support to family hog farmers since, in most instances, raising animals humanely
comes at a higher cost to the producer. This would help these farmers survive
the constant barrage of cheap corporate hog factory products.
The United States Trade Representative (USTR)
has not backed the call for increased attention to animal welfare concerns
within the WTO (not surprisingly), but the European Parliament has developed a
fairly strong position on the subject. On July 3, 2003, by a vote of 297 to 93,
the Parliament approved a resolution that “calls for enhanced recognition of
non-trade aspects of agricultural policy by strengthening non-trade-distorting
agricultural support measures through the ‘green box,’ to ensure that
well-targeted and transparent support measures to promote environmental and
rural development, employment and animal welfare goals are exempted from
reduction commitments...” (emphasis added).
AWI will push hard for WTO members to include
animal welfare protection more clearly during the negotiations.
THE OUTSIDE
ACTION
While AWI staff monitor negotiations in the
meeting, Special Projects Consultant Ben White will mobilize the public outside.
After massive protests shocked the WTO to a
standstill in Seattle in 1999, the group held its next meeting in Doha, Qatar,
far away from demonstrators’ questions concerning the extension of corporate
trade rules over democracy. Delegates in Cancun will be sequestered in the
“Hotel Zone,” a 22 kilometer long barrier island of glitzy hotels separated from
the city by causeways; hotel workers commute from dusty tenements on the
mainland.
AWI again will be the primary animal protection
organization dramatizing the way in which WTO policies are disastrous for global
humane and conservation efforts. In Seattle, our sea turtle costumes, worn by
240 volunteers, carried the message that no international treaty should have the
power to challenge domestic laws protecting wildlife. The WTO initially had
knocked down a U.S. law mandating that countries selling us shrimp use turtle
excluder devices on shrimp nets.
In Cancun we will march a school of
activists in dolphin costumes. You can look for the dolphins on the television
coverage of the event… or you can come to Cancun and wear one for yourself!
The WTO embodies a new world order of
undemocratic corporate control of commerce. But citizens across the globe are
fighting back in defense of human rights, social justice, democracy,
environmental safeguards, and animal protection. A new superpower has been born
based on fairness, empowerment, and transparency: global civil society. The
voice of this unified movement will be heard loud and clear in Cancun.
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