Posted Date: May 20, 2002
Trade and Aid: American Development NGOs Absent From Debate
Trade and Aid: American Development NGOs Absent From Debate
The absence of large US-based humanitarian and development organizations at the recent World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting and their potential involvement in the trade and globalization debate were topics raised at an early-Feb. meeting held at InterAction.
"For so long our members have been focussed on development assistance," said Suzanne Kindervatter, Director of InterAction’s Commission on the Advancement of Women. "Now with globalization, we want to look at how these forces impact our work and how we can impact globalization."
Mike Kuchinsky of Bread for the World, who attended the WTO meeting which took place in Seattle, said the American relief and development organizations’ lack of presence was "glaring". "The European organizations were asking, ‘where are the Americans?’"
One reason American development NGOs did not participate in the Seattle Ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization may be because these organizations do not have a clear understanding on how trade issues impact their work, according to Marceline White of Women’s EDGE. White asserted that WTO rules often negatively impact humanitarian development work.
She noted that UNICEF created a global code banning baby formula packaging that showed fat, healthy babies in order to encourage women to breastfeed and discourage them from buying baby formula. "Poor women – especially illiterate women – were attracted by the packaging because they wanted their babies to look just as fat and healthy. The government of Guatemala insisted that Gerber, which has a fat, healthy baby as part of its logo, remove this baby from their packaging," said White. "Gerber protested this, pointing to a new WTO rule that required countries to give precedence to corporate trademarks over national priorities. Guatemala backed down and exempted imported baby food products from these labeling restrictions."
White cited as another example, WTO rules on intellectual property rights which allow corporations to patent plant species – even species that have been traditionally grown in developing countries for centuries. For example, an US company now has a patent on a type of yellow bean that is commonly grown in Mexico, and is suing Mexican farmers who export these beans to the United States. Challenging this patent will cost Mexico more than $200,000 in legal fees.
Acknowledging that tensions exist between labor and environmental activists and some developing countries, who see labor and environmental regulations as a hindrance to growing their economies, Mark Vallianatos of Friends of the Earth questioned whether development organizations could help mediate between these groups. Bread for the World’s Kuchinsky suggested that NGOs in developing countries that are concerned with environmental and labor issues may "have a key role to bridge this gap."
Maria Riley of the Center of Concern pointed out that while the World Trade Organization has a trade and development committee, "it only deals with technical assistance issues, such as organizing financial institutions to facilitate trade." She also agreed that "in the US, there is a general absence of development-focussed NGOs in the trade process." Although environmental groups have strongly organized against the World Trade Organization, Riley noted that "the environmental groups focus on environmental sustainability, not on development."
The meeting generated several ideas about how to encourage InterAction members to become involved in trade issues. Suggestions included holding a larger forum to discuss trade and globalization and setting up a committee to meet with InterAction member CEOs and top management on these issues.
If you would like to attend future meetings on this topic, contact Julie Montgomery at 202-667-8227 x152, or at jmontgom@interaction.org.
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