The meeting is being confronted by anti-globalization protesters who stripped out of their clothes and spelled out the words “No WTO” with their naked bodies Monday, the first of several actions against the World Trade Organization meeting in this Caribbean resort.
A mix of radical activists, farmers and labour rights promoters have planned a week of protests to show “the harmful effects of free trade and growing corporate domination”, the Associated Press reported.
Demonstrators say Cancun, whose miles of white-sand beaches are mostly hidden behind high-rise hotels, is a good example of increasing private control.
The Bahamas delegation plans to use the Mexico meeting “to engage in a dialogue with selected members of the WTO, particularly those who have expressed an interest in serving on the membership of the Working Party,” the Ministry of Trade and Industry said.
The Working Party is established after a country has made application for accession to the WTO. The applicant government presents a memorandum covering all aspects of its trade and legal regime to the Working Party and this memorandum forms the basis for detailed fact finding by the Working Party, a necessary step towards approval by the General Council.
According to the ministry, the government is in the process of finalizing the Memorandum of Trade Regime, “which is a descriptive document of the legal, economic and trade regime of The Bahamas.”
The ministry further stated that the submission of this document to the WTO will “commence the first substantive step towards membership.”
The Bahamas submitted application for full membership in July 2001 and presently holds observer status within the WTO along with 39 other countries.
This meeting in Cancun, Mexico follows the meeting held Doha, Qatar, in 2001 where ministers began addressing issues that included agricultural and non-agricultural trade. A deadline to come up with a detailed blueprint for liberalizing agricultural trade was set for last March 31.
In a letter to journalists on the WTO website, Supachai Panitchpadki, director-general of the WTO said: “The good work that has been done in pushing forward the negotiations on modalities in agriculture and non-agricultural market access, cannot disguise the fact that we did not agree on those modalities by the prescribed target dates.”
The WTO Ministerial Conference is held every two years, and will be attended by 154 trade ministers, 146 of whom represent member-states of the WTO.
According to the ministry, the Bahamian delegation will also conduct bilateral discussions with member-countries as well with representatives of other international organizations to access new sources of technical assistance, training and co-operation for The Bahamas as it seeks to become more fully integrated into the global economy.
Minister Miller is accompanied to the conference by Helen Ebong, acting permanent secretary in the Ministry of Trade and Industry; Wendy Craigg, deputy governor of the Central Bank; William Poitier, assistant comptroller, Bahamas Customs; Bernadette Butler, senior counsel, Department of Legal Affairs; and Hank Ferguson, economist in the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
By Martella Matthews, The Nassau Guardian
