Balance sheet

The deal signed at the closing stages of the conference was a disaster for developing countries. The representatives of Brazil (Celso Amorin) and India (Kamal Nath) should hang their heads in shame. They have, as leaders of the G20 Group (that’s the developing countries, as opposed to the less developed countries, it includes Argentina, China, S Africa, Thailand and Egypt) agreed to axe tariffs in their agricultural, services and industrial markets.

Aileen Kwa from Focus said:
“India and Brazil have led the developing countries down the garden path in exchange for some market access in agriculture for Brazil, and services outsourcing for India.”

So developing countries have been forced to accept services market access for multi-national corporations from the west. The deal also forces poor countries to grant the same rights to overseas investors as local suppliers, this will cause yet more unemployment and suffering in the south, with a yet bigger flow of finance to the north.

For the WTO itself, a deal, any deal was vital in order to keep the organisation alive. A failure to agree anything in Hong Kong would have left a serious doubt over the continued existence of the WTO. Many on the streets of Hong kong had believed that there would be a deal in name only passed, one that didn’t progress for either side - the west/multi-national corp or the developing countries. But there has been a victory for the rich here.

The only concession the poorer countries got was an agreement to end export subsidies in 2013, which is a long way away. Any benefit from this promise will be massively outweighed by losses suffered by cuts in industrial tariffs and the opening up of trade in services.