Posted by WTO watch Qld on October 4, 2001 at 23:24:28:
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Let us, above all, be clear that, without a convincing programme of debt relief to start the new millennium, our objective of halving world poverty by 2015 will be only a pipe dream''. Kofi Annan, 21st Century Action Plan, April 2000
"We face the constant need to borrow in order to service our debt; the constant need to service our debt in order to borrow. We can no longer get out of this vicious circle''.
Julius Nyerere, Former President of Tanzania
1) COMING EVENTS
2) 'WHO'S AFRAID OF THE WTO?' Report on Parliamentary inquiry into Australia's relationship with the WTO
3) FOCUS ON
DROP THE DEBT ---the Jubilee campaign
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1) COMING EVENTS
The Alliance to Expose GATS meets every second Thursday (4th October) at 12.30 pm at 74 Astor Tce, Spring Hill.
More info gumbus@powerup.com.au
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After Friday's decision to postpone CHOGM, the Jubilee Australia Campaign wants to confirm that it will be going ahead this week with:
(i) the Jubilee/ACFOA display at the Commonwealth People's Festival
(ii) the Human Chain of Hands Rally at Suncorp Park (cnr George and Adelaide Streets, Brisbane city; opposite Treasury Casino), from 4.00pm-6.00pm, on Saturday, 6 October.
CHOGM Action Network March - Jubilee Australia encourages people to also participate in CHOGM Action Network's 'People's March for Peace', that will commence at Roma Street Forum (immediately next to Roma Street train station) at 9.00am on Saturday, 6 October. The march will proceed to Musgrave Park, where a range of groups will speak in support of world peace, clearly the most prominent international issue at present. Jubilee Australia will have a speaker participate in the speeches at the end of the march.
Reminder to campaign members - the campaign dinner at 69 Thomas Street, West End, Wednesday, 3 October, 6.30pm (please bring a plate to share) is still very much on!!
This will be a great chance for campaign workers from around the country to finally meet and get to know each other a little better, so we hope as many people can come as possible! (And a 'campaign member' is anyone who has or wants to support the campaign!)
Regards
Greg Boyd
Brisbane Coordinator
Jubilee Australia Campaign
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The CHOGM counter-conference "Another World is Possible"
is being held on Sunday 7 October from 10am til
5pm at the Kelvin Grove campus of QUT. Cost $12/$6.
For more information, phone Amelia on 0414-976-332,
Mike on 0418-185-804 or Alison on 0407-150-728.
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Refugee Crisis Seminar----Austcare
Want to find out about the "Refugee Crisis"?
Come to our seminar Ithaca Room, City Hall.
Margaret Reynolds, Renae Mann, Sue Ferguson, David Subek, Karen Stanley and others
9 October, 2001 from 6.30pm
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Refugee Stories------Austcare
Roma Parklands Performance of "Scattered Lives"
Lake Precinct Stage area
Sunday 7 October, 2001 3pm
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Social Justice Monitor has been updated.
please go to www.acej.cafeprogressive.com
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2) Report of the Parliamentary Inquiry into Australia’s relationship with the WTO.
The report was tabled in Parliament on September 24 and should be available at
http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/jcst
This is a brief analysis from the Australian Fair trade and Investment Network (AFTINET) based on a preliminary reading.
AFTINET lobbied for this inquiry and many AFTINET member organisations made submissions to it. We saw it as an opportunity to promote public debate through the public hearing process of the inquiry and to educate politicians about community concerns. These concerns included the lack of community consultation and parliamentary scrutiny of trade policy, the secretive and undemocratic structure of the WTO and its exclusion of developing countries from decision making, the conflicts between international trade law and UN agreements on human rights and the environment, the ability of WTO disputes panel decisions to over ride legitimate public interest regulation and the potential expansion of trade agreements into areas like public services and investment policy which should remain at the level of national and local democratic policy making . This process was perhaps more important than the report of the Inquiry, which was predictable given the domination of the committee by members of government parties.
The membership of the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties of the is 10 Liberals, 1 National, 5 Labor and one Democrat. It is worth noting that the former Chair of the Committee, Andrew Thompson was replaced after he lost the Liberal pre selection for his seat. His publicly funded trip to the USA, allegedly to do research for the Committee, was surrounded by controversy.
The title of the Report, "Who’s Afraid of the WTO?" reveals its direction. The report endorses current government policy, while conceding that some changes are needed around the edges of that policy. The report argues that much community criticism of current policy is based on ignorance or misunderstanding, and recommends "community information programs" on the benefits of trade liberalisation.
The body of the report does record many of the criticisms of the WTO and Australia’s policy towards it raised by many of the 300 submissions to the inquiry from organisations and individuals. Most of these criticisms are not found in the recommendations, but some have influenced the recommendations.
One positive and revealing recommendation is that the government should commission multidisciplinary research to evaluate the socio-economic impact of trade liberalisation in Australia since the conclusion of the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations in 1994. This is based on the damaging admission by DFAT that, while DFAT produces studies which claim to predict future benefits from further trade liberalisation, no studies of the actual economic and social outcomes had been done (p25).
The committee also recommended that the likely socio-economic impacts of future WTO agreements on industry sectors and communities be assessed before deciding whether Australia should enter into them. This is also an implied criticism of the DFAT and other studies which always claim long term net economic benefits for the whole economy from liberalisation precisely because they exclude consideration of social impacts like job losses on particular sectors and communities.
A related recommendation is that a specific Joint Standing Committee on Trade Liberalisation be established to monitor and review the impact of Trade agreements on Australia, to have input into trade negotiation positions as they are developed by the government, and to conduct an annual review of WTO policy.
Other recommendations support community consultation about trade policy and inclusion of community representatives in WTO delegations. However, as we have noted in submissions to DFAT, the current advisory body is still overwhelmingly made up of business interests, with only four community representatives out of 16.
The report also acknowledges that there has been a lack of consultation with State and Territory governments on trade policy and recommends some measures to address this.
The dissenting voice in the report (Appendix A) is that of Democrat Senator Andrew Bartlett, who endorses the concept of "Fair Trade" rather than "Free Trade", and supports many of the concerns raised by community organisations.
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3) FOCUS ON THE UNPAYABLE DEBT OWED BY THE WORLD'S POOREST COUNTRIES
Why cancel debt?
Because debt kills. Debt repayments divert money away from basic life-saving health care in the world's poorest countries. The UN estimates that if funds were diverted back into health and education from debt repayment, the lives of seven million children a year could be saved.
Because it makes economic sense. The poorest countries are forced to take out new loans and divert aid just to try and keep up with interest payments. Any accountant knows this is bad financial practice - but these countries have no choice. If they were individuals or companies, they would be declared bankrupt, and a line would be written under the debts.
Because whoever is to blame for the huge build-up of debt, the only people who suffer as a result are the poorest people in the world. Some of the money got spent badly. Some was wasted. Some went into the pockets of dictators. Some went straight back to the West through corrupt lending. Some simply acted as a subsidy to Western companies. Very little of it actually helped ordinary people. But it is ordinary people who suffer now because of the debt - people who were probably not even born when the loans were made.
Because debt cancellation works to improve the lives of the poorest people. In countries where debts have been reduced, there has been a real positive impact on the ground. Debt cancellation means more money for education and health which translates into more schools, teachers, drugs, rural clinics and trained health care workers.
Because history shows that the right kind of debt cancellation is good for everyone. Germany received massive debt relief after the Second World War. The Allies realised it made sense - rebuilding a stable Germany meant peace and prosperity in Europe. It also meant Germans had enough money to buy American, British and Japanese goods. The levels of debt that were agreed as affordable for Germany are levels that today's post-war countries in Africa - like Mozambique, Angola and Rwanda - can only dream of.
www.dropthedebt.org
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The benefits of debt cancellation in the fight against poverty
Preliminary case studies
Uganda
Uganda is currently the clearest example of how debt relief can be used effectively to make a real difference to the poorest people because it was the first country to get debt reduction under the HIPC initiative, in 1998. The country received further reduction in April 2000 following the Cologne summit. In total, Uganda has had its $4 billion debt reduced by 42 per cent. Debt service payments have dropped from $151 million to $88 million a year.
Resources that once would have been spent repaying debts are now channelled into the Poverty Action Fund, which is managed by representatives from the government, international organisations, local NGOs and churches.
In the last two years, the number of children in primary school has doubled from 2.1 million to over 5 million - meaning that over 90% of young children now attend school. Because of debt relief, the government has been able to remove user-fees, repair and build more schools and increase the number of teachers.
In the Luwero District, north of Kampala, education has expanded rapidly. In one school, three years ago there were 190 pupils. Now there are 350 children attending, with two new classrooms almost finished.
Spending on primary health care has increased by 270 per cent.
Money from debt relief means that rural health centres are able to afford new staff - in Butuntumula Health Centre's case, a clinical officer, two midwives and a nurse. The Centre also gets regular supplies of basic drugs following HIPC money, and can now offer free immunisations for children against killer diseases. The number of daily patients has risen from five to thirty in two years, because of increased capacity. People who cannot get to the health centre are also better off, as staff have bought two new bicycles to increase their outreach work.
$1.7 million has been set aside from debt relief money to help combat the spread of HIV/AIDS, providing core funding for the AIDS national strategy plan
The Ugandan government are contributing an equal amount, and getting support from international agencies to find the $5 million needed to realise the national strategy plan.
Mozambique
In April, when Mozambique reaches the end of the HIPC process, it will have had its $8 billion debt reduced by 72%, with debt service payments dropping from $127 million to $54 million. Mozambique allocates resources from debt relief into priority budget lines - concentrating on health, education and infrastructure - defined by the poverty reduction action plan.
Health spending increased by $13.9 million this year, providing core funding for the national strategy on HIV/AIDS prevention and care
- In Mozambique, the government are immunising an additional half a million children against diptheria, tetanus and whooping cough.
- The proportion of health centres stocked with essential drugs and operated by trained personnel increased from 86% to 90% in the last two years
$10 million is being spent on electrification of rural schools and hospitals, and rehabilitation of infrastructure following the floods
The number of girls going to school is on the increase thanks to a $3.2 million targeted campaign using debt relief money
Burkina Faso
Later this year, Burkina Faso will get the final tranche of debt cancellation, reducing debts by nearly half. Payments, however have reduced just 20 percent, from $57 to $37 million a year. The majority of debt relief has been ploughed into education:
Last year, eight hundred new classrooms were added to existing schools
The government is making strides towards increasing primary enrolment from the pre-debt relief levels of 41% to a target of 70% - by removing user fees, and training more teachers.
Specific examples of how some of the additional resources generated from debt relief will be used in countries which have just recently qualified for HIPC:
Honduras:
Are training and hiring an extra 1000 teachers this year in order to extend compulsory education from 6 to 9 years old
Senegal:
Are hiring an extra 2000 teachers per year for the next three years
Are hiring more rural health workers and increase supply of primary health kits to help meet target of reducing infant mortality by 20% over the next three years.
Tanzania:
Conduct a nationwide campaign to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS
Increase immunisation rates for killer diseases of children
Malawi:
60% of debt relief will be channelled into health and education with the rest going to infrastructure, boreholes, agriculture extension and gender and community services. Examples of budget increases for next year from debt relief money:
- $7.3 million will be spent to get critical drugs into hospitals and health centres
- $2.7 million for extra staff and support in primary health care centres
- $1.1 million for training more nurses, and $3.8 million for training new teachers
- $6.1 million for repairs to schools and teaching materials
- $4.2 million for borehole construction and maintenance
- $2.7 million for agriculture expansion
www.dropthedebt.org
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Ten facts about Debt
1. Live Aid raised $200 million for sub-Saharan Africa. Each week, sub-Saharan Africa pays $250 million in debt repayments to the west.
Source: World Bank, 2000
2. Where debt has been cancelled, there has been a real impact on basic services. In Uganda, twice as many children are going to primary school because of debt reduction.
Source: Oxfam, 2000
3. 19,000 children die every day as a result of the debt crisis.
Source: Christian Aid, 2000
4. The G7 countries have now all promised to cancel virtually all of the debts owed to them by up to 41 of the poorest countries. But the International Monetary Fund and World Bank are only reducing those debts by one-third.
Source: World bank, 2001
5. For the first 22 countries to qualify for the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, annual debt service repayments will only be reduced by just over one-quarter. So even after debt cancellation promised by the G7, countries will be spending more on debt service each year than they currently spend on health
Source: World Bank, 2001, UNDP, 2000
6. UNAIDS estimate that for 17 countries in Africa, the costs of providing basic prevention and care for HIV/AIDS is $1.4 billion a year. This is exactly what these same countries will spend service their debts, even after receiving debt cancellation under the G7 plan.
Source: World Bank, 2000
7. In 1953, Germany only had to pay the equivalent of 3.5% of export earnings as debt service. Yet under the current debt reduction initiative, the poorest countries are expected to pay more than 15% of export earnings in debt service after receiving debt relief.
Source: Jubilee 2000 Coalition, 1999
8. Zambia, where life expectancy is dropping below 40 years because of HIV, will have to pay more in debt service each year after getting debt relief.
Source: World Bank, 2001
9. The G7 control almost 50% of the votes on the Boards of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, and in effect control these institutions. The entire region of Sub-Saharan Africa has just 7% of the votes - an equivalent amount to Germany alone.
Source: IMF, 2000
10. Twenty-four million people in 160 countries signed Jubilee 2000's petition calling for the cancellation of the poorest countries' unpayable debts, making it the biggest international petition ever.
Source: Jubilee 2000, 2000
www.dropthedebt.org
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Terrie Templeton WTO Watch Qld gumbus@powerup.com.au