Clarke explained that the reasons why this ministerial came to a standstill is that the US does not have a clear position to move forward with the negotiations.

He said the ministerial was called partly because it is meant to take place every two years, and there had not been any meetings in the past 4 years. According to Clarke, the Ministerial was called to build up confidence in the WTO, as the organization is in the precipice. He claimed the WTO has contributed to the financial, food and climate crises.

Meanwhile, Shalmali Guttal mentioned that the Asian parliaments accept that the different (food, climate and financial) crises happen as a result of deregulation and liberalization. But the WTO is now pushing for more deregulation and more liberalization. This goes to show the WTO does not represent the will of the people in Asia.

According to Shalmali nobody in the WTO has the courage to speak against further liberalization in order to protect jobs, food, and the environment, because they fear that if they say something like that they will be held responsible for the collapse of the multilateral negotiations.

On the US position in the WTO negotiations, Shalmali said “the US has always been a bully. The Doha Round was pushed through by the US by bullying and threatening”. The US position has always been that they will not cut any subsidies in their own country. Their corporations continue to have full access to raw materials, markets and labor in the developing countries.

Finally, Tony Clarke said that the completion of the Doha Round will not happen until the US is in position to go for it, in three or four months. He said 2010 is going to be the year when they want to complete the Doha Round, which means they will need to have another Ministerial to do that.

Photo: Radio Mundo Real