Zambia questions WTO’s role in promoting fair global trade

Zambia questions WTO’s role in promoting fair global trade
Written by Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Tuesday, February 24, 2009 8:41:31 AM

ZAMBIA has questioned the relevance of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in helping to promote fair global trade, accusing the trade body of spearheading modern day slavery by promoting Western favoured trade mechanisms.

Commerce minister Felix Mutati also said the current Economic Partnerships Agreements (EPAs) negotiations would remain an illusion for as long as the Doha Round remained unresolved.

Mutati told about 20 economic and financial editors from Commonwealth African countries attending a seminar on reporting globalisation at Protea Hotel last Sunday that Africans would survive the current global economic crisis as they were a strong people who even endured slave trade.

“Africans are strong. They survived slave trade, they will be able to survive. They are tough,” Mutati said. “Part of the solution to the current economic problems is for us to conclude our discussions on the Doha agenda. We must have some urgency in concluding the negotiations, then we can restore the lost trade globally which is estimated at US $2 trillion… at the moment, the relevance of the WTO is under serious question. Why have an institution that is not going to deliver?”

Mutati also said the success of the EPAs was dependent on the progress of the Doha Round of talks.

“Now the cousin of the Doha is called the EPA which is a subset of this Doha thing. We are saying that as we continue to have difficulties in Doha, let us conclude the EPAs but we are saying if the umbrella is defective, how do you conclude the EPAs when you can’t conclude the rule-based multilateral system?” he wondered.

Mutati also said the current global economic crisis had exacerbated the chances of Least Development Countries (LDCs) getting fair treatment from the Doha round talks.

Mutati also condemned Western countries for insisting on giving LDCs development aid and not opening up trade opportunities for them.

“…it’s a part of life you want to give us the hitherto of slave trade to block us from accessing the markets and creating deeper dependence on yourselves. That is what is called flamboyant slave trade. They hit you harder than the physical movement of people,” said Mutati. “We see ourselves in EPAs again facing the same issues that we thought would not be available in Doha. It is just the language that has changed a bit, but the substance has remained the same.”