archives: WTO InfoKenya's Major Role in WTO Debacle in London
The Nation (Nairobi)
September 17, 2003
Posted to the web September 17, 2003
Paul Redfern, NairobiThe Kenyan delegation played a critical role in the collapse of the World Trade Organisation in Cancun, Mexico.
NGO and media sources in the UK say it was the decision of Trade minister Mukhisa Kituyi to walk out of the talks, following the refusal of the EU to back down on some of its key demands, after days of tough talking, which finally signalled the end of the talks.
Kenya was one of a key group of developing nations which also included China, South Africa, Brazil, India and Malaysia which had been locked together in tense discussions with the EU and the US from the early hours of Sunday morning.
But under pressure from other African countries who were insistent on vetoing EU demands on new investment and competition rules by multinational companies in developing countries, Kenya walked out on Sunday. It blamed Mr Pascal Lamy, the EU Chief negotiator, for refusing to budge on the European proposals.
Try as he might thereafter, Mexican chairman Luis Ernesto Derbez could not find the agreement to get the talks going again. Dr Kituyi was insistent that Kenya had no other option than to act the way it had.
"You ask me who is to blame (for the talks failure)," Dr Kituyi said. "I would say it is those who have been trying to manipulate the (trade talks) process. Those who have been trying to manufacture consensus. The EU and the US, we believe, are to blame. The Singapore issues (on trade and investment) were at the centre of the deadlock, all of them. The developing countries say that they are not ready for any of them."
Most international NGOs attending the talks were in agreement that it was the EU and the United States which were to blame for the failure to make agreement at Cancun. They were in agreement with delegates from the developing world that no deal was better than another poor deal.
"The EU and US leave Cancun in shame, exposed as cheap conmen," the British NGO Action Aid said on Monday. "The rich countries have only looked after their own interests."
Mr Barry Coates of the London-based World Development Movement said that African countries had no alternative but to say No to the deal on offer.
"From the beginning, they have been bullied, ignored and marginalised."
Critical to the talks debacle was the failure of the US and the EU to give ground on the issue of agricultural subsidies. While minor concessions were made on the issue of cuts in tariffs on processed agricultural products, this was regarded as far too meagre an offer to form the basis of a way forward.
What appeared to have given developing countries an extra boost was the presence of China at the WTO talks for the first time. In a critical alliance with India, Brazil, and South Africa, they formed the basis of the group of 21 developing countries who were to successfully challenge the EU and US dominated agenda.
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