[no subject]

[owner-india_policy@cinenet.net]

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Please help make the Manifesto better, or accept it, and propagate it!
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IPI_Marker

I could not agree more.
Join us for the first ever Global Rally in Support of Globalisation,
Free
Trade, Free Market on Dec 2, 2001. People in over 110 cities have signed
in
so far, including Delhi and Bombay. To learn more about the event,
please visit
www.walkforcapitalism.org
Barun

At 02:46 AM 11/21/2001 -0800, you wrote:
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>Please help make the Manifesto better, or accept it, and propagate it!
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>IPI_Marker
>
>Hi all,
>       I don't understand the need to be part of WTO at all! The whole
>concept of Free Trade being promoted by world's biggest Governments is
>a pardox. Simplest thing for developing countries like India will be to

>simply open up imports, remove duties and taxes, cut down on all Govt.
>expenditure other than defense and some key areas, remove  all stupid
>regulations and so on. If all the developing countries do these you
>will see those big countries like US really shaking from the impact. As

>for loss of income of many poor people in developing countries that is
>going to happen anyway. When the technology is progressing so rapidly
>minimum subsistence based on manual labour will be very difficult. I
>would suggest a special tax and redistribute all of that tax collection

>among all the poor people so that they can take care of their short
>term needs and invest in Education and Training. That's all! Once Govt.

>makes it clear that it is one time assistance everybody will be forced
>to be creative and productive. Otherwise, good luck!
>Regards,
>Ashish
>
>--- charuX@lucent.com wrote:
> >
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> > Please help make the Manifesto better, or accept it, and propagate
> > it!
> >
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> > IPI_Marker
> >
> > One of the topics debated on this forum has been the need for trade
> > liberalization.
> > I have held that much of what is being pushed in the name of
> > liberalization
> > is a blueprint for transnational capital interests t extend their
> > power
> > and
> > profit making with little benefit to the populations over which this

> > 'liberalization'
> > would be imposed. The attached article presents concrete evidence.
> >
> > __________________________________________________________________
> >
> >
> > Trade Piracy Unmasked November 12, 2001 By George Monbiot
> >
> > Just as woodworkers used to drink in the Carpenter's Arms, or
> > farmhands in the Jolly Ploughman, the trade negotiators from the
> > world's richest nations have found their way to their own hallowed
> > ground.
> >
> > When they gather in Switzerland, they dine together in an exclusive
> > restaurant on the shores of Lake Geneva called The Pirate. It's here

> > that the members of "the quad" -- the US, EU, Canada and Japan --
> > study their maps and count their doubloons.
> >
> > In Seattle in 1999, the world trade talks failed because the weaker
> > countries, excluded from the key negotiations, walked out. Now, we
> > have been promised, the rich world has learnt from its mistakes.
> >
> > At the new talks in Qatar on Friday, the nations of "the quad" will,

> > they insist, rescue the castaways of the new world order. But the
> > progress so far suggests that, instead of being allowed a share in
> > the
> > spoils of free trade, the world's poor will be walking the plank.
> >
> > The draft declaration due to be discussed this weekend was mostly
> > written during two exclusive meetings: in Mexico in August and in
> > Singapore last month.
> >
> > Though the World Trade Organisation has 142 members, only 21
nations,
> > among them the world's richest and most powerful, were permitted to
> > attend. The documents the meeting produced were then submitted to
the
> > other members for approval. They were not permitted to make
> > substantial changes.
> >
> > As a result, the draft declaration contains almost none of the
> > concessions that developing countries, representing most of the
> > world's people, have requested. Powerful nations have refused to
stop
> > subsidising their exports of meat, grain and sugar: by dumping them
> > in
> > weak countries at artificially low prices, they destroy the
> > livelihoods of local farmers.
> >
> > Britain and Germany have insisted that they will not relax the laws
> > governing the patenting of drugs: poor countries facing public
health
> > disasters will continue to be denied cheap medicine.
> >
> > The poor world wants the rich world to honour the promises it made
> > under the last world trade agreement, before starting any new
> > negotiations. Instead "the quad" is loading the agenda with new and
> > fiendishly complex issues, such as investment, services and
> > government
> > procurement.
> >
> > At first sight this approach makes no sense. Just as Presidents Bush

> > and Blair insist that the world's future prosperity, democracy and
> > even freedom from terror will depend on a successful new trade
round,
> > their negotiators appear to be doing everything in their power to
> > undermine it.
> >
> > But all that has happened is that the powerful nations have
abandoned
> > the pretence of seeking consent. Now they will simply bludgeon the
> > developing world into submission.
> >
> > Last month in Geneva an African delegate to the World Trade
> > Organisation complained that, "If I speak out too strongly, the US
> > will phone my minister. They will twist the story and say that I am
> > embarrassing the United States.
> >
> > My government will not even ask, 'What did he say?' They will just
> > send me a ticket tomorrow. ... I fear that bilateral pressure will
> > get
> > me, so I don't speak, for fear of upsetting the master. To me, that
> > threat is real.  Because I am from a poor country, I can't say what
I
> > want." If the poor nations complain, the rich nations simply
withdraw
> > aid or freeze their exports.
> >
> > Now, as Christian Aid has revealed, some governments are dispensing
> > with negotiations altogether. Britain's Department for International

> > Development, run by Clare Short, has decided to bypass the World
> > Trade
> > Organisation and apply direct pressure on poor nations to open up
> > their markets to foreign companies. The department has told Ghana
> > that
> > aid money for a water project will be conditional on the country's
> > privatisation of its water industry.
> >
> > Without consulting its own people, the government of Ghana has been
> > forced to start raising the price of water by between two and three
> > times, to prepare the industry for sale to British, French or US
> > companies. The corporations will make millions, but already
Ghanaians
> > are being forced to draw their water from polluted rivers and
> > ditches,
> > infested with cholera and guinea worm, as they can't pay the new
> > rates.
> >
> > But while quietly plundering the poorer nations, our pirate states
> > like to pretend that they are compassionate and even-handed.
> > Britain's
> > Department of Trade and Industry, as it website boasts, holds
regular
> > meetings with campaign groups such as the World Development
Movement,
> > in order to "share information" and "gather views".
> >
> > But, as a series of leaked documents shows, behind the scenes the
> > British government is doing all it can to undermine them.
> >
> > The papers were discovered by members of the research group
Corporate
> > Europe Observatory, who were investigating a powerful trade
> > association called International Financial Services, London. The
> > researchers stumbled upon an unlinked page, accidentally appended to

> > the lobbyists' website.
> >
> > International Financial Services, London is one of several British
> > groups hoping that the trade talks can be expanded to cover a wide
> > range of service industries. The proposed new General Agreement on
> > Trade in Services, due to be discussed alongside the other treaties
> > in
> > Qatar, could oblige countries to privatise key public services such
> > as
> > health, education and water.
> >
> > The leaked page contained the minutes of meetings held by the
> > "Liberalisation of Trade in Services" committee set up to liaise
> > between IFSL and the British government.
> >
> > British civil servants, the researchers discovered, were worried
that
> > campaign groups opposed to the General Agreement on Trade in
Services
> > were becoming too effective. The minutes recorded that Matthew
> > Lownds,
> > from the Foreign Office, "noted that the campaign by the World
> > Development Movement in particular was leading to a broadening of
> > concerns. ... He also pointed to the need to coordinate business
> > responses to the NGO's allegations."  Malcolm McKinnon, a civil
> > servant from the Department of Trade and Industry, complained that
> > the
> > case for the general agreement was "vulnerable" when campaigners
> > asked
> > for "proof of where the economic benefits lay" for poor nations. The

> > committee decided to spend pounds50-70,000 to "counter the NGOs".
> >
> > More damagingly, the civil servants appear to have been passing
> > critical European Union papers to the business people on the
> > committee, including negotiating documents from other countries,
> > which
> > could be enormously valuable to companies hoping to anticipate
> > hostile
> > positions. These papers, the Corporate Europe Observatory points
out,
> > are unavailable even to members of the European Parliament.
> >
> > So the government, while secretly colluding with corporate
lobbyists,
> > has been double-crossing the public and undermining some of the
> > poorest countries on earth. Tony Blair and Clare Short call this
> > process "development".  It is not development. It's piracy.
> >
> > This article first appeared on znet [http://www.zmag.org/]


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