TIGblogs - Abdallah Diwan

Unless governments in poor countries implement domestic policies that benefit the entire population and not only the rich elite, fair world trade will not be enough to help nations achieve the U.N. Millennium Development Goals, Eveline Herfkens, executive coordinator.

According to Herfkens, who has been participating in plenary discussions and briefings here since Monday, poor countries are partly to blame for economic inequalities, since rich people in poor nations are frequently the ones making decisions on trade and other policies.

"Rules on money and trade are set by the rich," Herfkens said. "So don't be surprised if these rules don't benefit the poor. This is true in domestic and national context also. Developing countries' national policies, including their trade regimes, are not set by the poor ... they are set by the national elites."

Herfkens emphasized, however, that in world trade, rich countries are ultimately responsible for ensuring fair negotiations with poor nations, including by cutting agriculture subsidies and ending trade barriers. The only exception to this, she added, is if rich nations want to use subsidies and barriers to help their poor farmers.

"Countries should be allowed, including rich countries, to subsidize public goods," she said. "The problem with the subsidy system in Europe and in the U.S. is that it actually leads to production, production, production. I believe that rich countries also have the right to have income transfers to their poor citizens."

But "the present subsidies don't go to the poor farmers," she said. "They go dominantly to rich ones."

Asked whether countries are currently doing enough to reach the Millennium Development Goals by the target date of 2015, Herfkens acknowledged that the goals will not be achieved to the same level by all nations at the same time.

"National debates about the MDGs have led in some cases ... to customize the goals to less ambitious [ones] because they are not achievable. But there are many more countries that actually raised the bar. The global goals have to be achieved by accelerating progress in developing countries to the extent that is feasible to those countries," she said.

On the other hand, she said, participation of civil society and places for discussion such as UNCTAD's conference this week are essential to make governments fulfill their promises to, among other things, halve the number of poor people in the world by 2015.

"Governments only live up to their promises if they are made accountable by their own population. The U.N. cannot send the police to a government that doesn't live up to its promise," Herfkens added.

On UNCTAD's role in trade negotiations, Herfkens said, "This is a very important forum for setting the atmosphere and setting the minds for breakthrough" at the World Trade Organization's next gathering under the Doha round of trade talks set for July.

"I really hope that the basic framework for negotiations will be agreed at the WTO in July including [on] the issues of agriculture subsidies," she added.
http://www.unwire.org/UNWire/20040616/449_24940.asp