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HONG KONG — Christian leaders from many parts of this planet have grave doubts the World Trade Organization (WTO) will deliver on its goals to reduce poverty and diminish
inequality during upcoming talks to reset regulations for global commerce.
Church groups from a plethora of denominations associated with civil society groups have converged on Hong Kong for the 6th Ministerial Conference of the WTO on Dec. 13-18 to lobby, badger and protest for more justice in the way humanity goes about a large part of its daily life.
“When the WTO was established in 1995, its purpose was to bring about greater prosperity, increase employment, reduce poverty, diminish inequality,” the Rev. Prawate Khid-arn, general secretary of the Christian Conference of Asia, said in an address to church organizations in Hong Kong on Dec. 9. “Ten years later it is clear the WTO has not delivered on these goals, and has had exactly the opposite results.”
His words were echoed in Canada by Rusa Jeremic, program coordinator on international trade and global economic justice for KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives.
“Yet again what we see happening is that the powerful Northern countries are trying to push ahead with a corporate agenda at the WTO that fundamentally threatens people, communities and the earth,” said Jeremic. She anticipates pressure will build on negotiators from developing countries to accept unjust trade deals.
The Hong Kong ecumenical conference on “Globalizing Economic Justice and Social Sustainability” from Dec. 9 to 12 is aimed to stem that pressure, with more than 120 participants from at least 12 countries, co-organized by groups including the Christian Conference of Asia, the Pacific Alliance of YMCAs and the World Student Christian Federation (Asia and Pacific Region).
“We have a system where livelihoods are being destroyed, human rights ignored, public health endangered and democratic systems eroded — governments have lost their ability to guarantee access to the essentials of life and food sovereignty,” said Prawate in
his address.
High on the agendas of both governments and non-governmental organizations in Hong Kong are agricultural talks. Groups campaigning for fairness cite the massive subsidies on food products in countries in the European Union and the United States, which control international financial institutions enforcing a free trade regimen on developing countries.
“There are 1.2 billion people who live in poverty, earn less than $1 a day,” Prawate said. “Yet another 2.8 billion earn less than $2 a day. As Christian workers, we believe that the forests, the land that sustains life are gifts to God given to us to exercise stewardship over, and justice is central to all religious traditions.”
Burnad Fathima Natesan, a speaker from India, said: “Women comprise 70 per cent of the world’s 1.2 billion absolute poor. They bear the brunt of economic transition and crisis caused by market forces and globalization. ...
“The WTO agreement on agriculture is unfair to the farmers of the Third World. It affects agriculture, with subsidies given to farmers in rich countries leading to dumping of food in the Third World."
Fathima said: “In agricultural activity, women represent 70 per cent in India and 66 per cent in other Asian countries. The WTO has created a major impact on women — one of the worst situations of Asian women is they do not have land rights even though they
are agricultural workers, employed in sowing, replanting and harvesting work.”
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