Remarks by the Director of the WTO MOCK Summit at Opening of the Training for 2009 Performance

Remarks by the Director of the WTO MOCK Summit at Opening of the Training for 2009 Performance

 

• It is always a great pleasure for me when I bring together WTO-Mock summit actors for training.
  

 

• My source of pleasure is that here with me are some of the icons of BUK gathered together to fashion out ideas of the WTO-Regime and how to demonstrate them in a theatric form.
  

 

• Some of you had already participated in previous performances but some of you are invited for the first time to join us.
  

 

• I think this is a good mix which inspite of short period of rehearsal, would not create many difficulties for us.
  

 

• You are aware that this year's performance is the fifth round which is tagged "Brazil 2009". The choice of Brazil is not by accident.
  

 

• A major issue which has knocked down the WTO-Regime and still is not able to rise up is agricultural trade and that Brazil is a major player as a great exporter of agricultural products.
  

 

The 2008 Mock Summit which was in a mocked Dakar was conceived on a real problem of the real WTO that what was happening after Hong Kong, that since then the normal ministerial conference could not hold. We asked the question "is the great organization dead or still surviving"?

 

The Mock Summit 2008 negotiated the issues and still ended in a stalemate. If you could remember the mock trade representative of Nigeria moved the statement which defined the stalemate and ended the meeting.

 

The motion contained two propositions:

 

1. That the decision-making procedures of the WTO-Regime be immediately reviewed otherwise the developing country members would not continue to participate in the trade body; under the same rules and processes.
   
2. The disagreements in the 2008 mock summit as in the real WTO system, is dominated by the controversy on Agricultural trade, and part of the stalemate became that the AOA and other Agreements are made to favour only the developed country members, therefore, all must be reviewed as on Doha Development Agenda.
   

 

The Doha controversy has indeed continued to put the WTO regime in disarray such that since Hong Kong in 2005 there has not been any full Ministerial Conference to reform the global trade relations according to Doha Development Agenda.

 

But there are many Semi-Ministerial consultative meetings to plan and plan for a full conference. The recent ones are in New Delhi and Geneva. The issues in general are as we came up with in 2008 WTO-Mock Summit.

 

Therefore, the mock exercise which we are going to play in the next 9 days is conceived as a full Ministerial conference with a definite objective of:

 

1. To reposition the global trade organization or
   
2. To make it cease to exist.
   

 

From academic sources there are strong feelings that for developing countries in particular, the death of WTO-Regime is the best thing to happen. But from practical point of view this may lead to protectionism, trade-wars and ultimately chaos and disaster.

 

Inspite of everything our thinking about WTO-Regime is to allow it to live but to reform it to serve minimum interests of poor countries.

 

Because of centrality of agriculture in diverse conflicting interests in WTO-trade regime, we have choosen issues on agricultural trade to practice our engineering on global trade.

 

I wish we are going to come out with a review of AOA in particular and WTO structures of decision-making in the 2009 mock summit. But the participants are free to negotiate and bury the great organization.

 

However, we would be mindful of the situation of the WTO-regime in the current global financial crisis. In reality the WTO-regime builds the financial crisis as liberalization and deregulation of financial services through GATS and FTAs contribute to breed the financial crisis. While the adjustment of the financial services sector deprives small farmers and generally the rural population, in preference of speculative transactions which resulted in high prices of commodities, especially food across the globe.

 

Again, we are aware that the Doha Development Agenda is further liberalization and deregulation of the global economy. If this is pushed now by the WTO-regime, is it not going to bring more disaster to global economy and agriculture in particular.

 

Finally, now we have two events.

 

1. Working Group Discussion and
   
2. Presentation of Speeches by Mock-Trade Representatives.
   

 

Lastly, just as reminder rehearsal will begin in Students Centre New Campus at 4.00pm.

 

M. M. Yusif

WTO-Mock Summit Club

Kano

06 – 12 – 09