‘I am troubled that the Americans are suggesting in a subtle way, as they strategise for Doha, that the coming trade negotiations should be pursued also in the context of the war against international terrorism.’ - Sir Shridath Ramphal, Chief Negotiator of the Regional Negotiating Machinery

BRIDGETOWN, CMC---The Caribbean has a strong warning for the United States of America against moves to link coming international trade negotiations with the war against terrorism.

The warning has come from the Caribbean's Chief Negotiator of the Regional Negotiating Machinery (RNM), Sir Shridath Ramphal, ahead of next month's Fourth Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Doha, Qatar, in the Middle East.

Stressing that "maintaining solidarity” of the 78-member African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group was a "principal challenge" for the forthcoming WTO's meeting in Doha, Ramphal told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) yesterday:

"I am also troubled that the Americans are suggesting in a subtle way, as they strategise for Doha, that the coming trade negotiations should be pursued also in the context of the war against international terrorism".

This link, he explained, has already been repudiated in the US Congress by the Black Caucus, which is headed by Congressman Charles Rangel.

(Rangel is due to receive an honorary doctor of laws degree from the University of the West Indies, St.Augustine Campus, on Saturday, November 3).

Ramphal feels the US-inspired linkage between trade negotiations and the fight against terrorism "is a dangerous fallacy and designed to put the developing countries in a pressure cooker in Doha".

He said that the capital of Qatar has now "become a very unpropitious negotiating environment for the developing countries and not only because of the trade issues to be addressed against the background of the "the Seattle debacle of 1999".

This was in reference to the WTO's ministerial meeting in Washington in 1999 that had to be aborted in the face of massive and sustained street protests against corporate globalisation

Ramphal, a former Secretary General of the 54-nation Commonwealth and Co-Chair of the International Commission on Global Governance, who assumed the role of head of the RNM in April 1997, has already forwarded a briefing to Caribbean heads of government and Trade Ministers on the WTO's meeting in Doha, scheduled to take place from November 9 to 13.

Created by CARICOM governments to develop and execute an overall negotiating strategy for various trade-related negotiations, the RNM also represents Haiti, a provisional member of CARICOM, and Cuba and the Dominican Republic.

Chief Negotiator Ramphal said that the US has been consistently seeking to link "success" of the WTO's Doha ministerial meeting to the fight against terrorism.

But the Caribbean and its allies, particularly those in Africa and Asia, have to be on guard that what the USA and its allies consider "success, is not the same thing for the developing nations", he emphasised.

Currently In Barbados, where he performed his duties as Chancellor of the University of the West Indies (UWI) at Saturday's graduation ceremony, Ramphal said that "despite the downside”, he had stressed to CARICOM leaders and ministers the importance of the Caribbean's presence at Doha.

"We have to ensure full collaboration within the ACP group and among other allies that decisions made at Doha do not bind us against our interest and let our prospects go out, not with a bang, but a whimper".

Crucial to the solidarity strategy being pursued by the Caribbean for Doha is a meeting of ACP Trade Ministers in Brussels carded for November 5-6. This will be preceded by a preparatory meeting of CARICOM Trade Ministers the previous day, the CMC was told.

The Caribbean and its partners of the ACP group will be expected to further "consolidate their solidarity" in relation to the recommendations in the final draft Declaration just circulated by the WTO for the ministerial meeting in Doha, according to Ramphal.

"Without our solidarity", he said, "the industrialised countries will get agreement on a new round on trade negotiations that's wholly biased in favour of their interests and that will not be a response to the fundamental requirements of the Caribbean and other poor and developing states".

Ramphal, for whom the WTO's Doha meeting is expected to be his last involvement in a major event for the RNM before he demits office by the end of November as Chief Negotiator, said he was particularly encouraged by the "very positive position" adopted by the Holy See (The Vatican) that corresponds to the aspirations of the poor and developing countries.

In a note on "The Development Dimensions of the World Trade Organisation", being circulated ahead of the WTO ministerial meeting in Doha, the Holy See said:

"Both justice and long-term economic efficiency require that the international trade system restore to all its participants the highest achievable equality of opportunity by eliminating, within the shortest possible period, trade and production distorting export subsidies and providing ample market access on a sure and predictable basis to products in which the poorest countries have comparative advantage..."