Abuja, 23/03/2000 (Agence Europe) - As briefly mentioned in yesterday's EUROPE, Abednego Seisa Dqojane (Lesotho) is preparing a report on globalisation and the means available to the ACP states and the EU enabling them to react together to the benefits and disadvantages it entails. This report will not be ready until the next Assembly session, in the autumn. Given its importance, however, the Assembly held a preliminary debate on the subject.
The rapporteur noted that, while it is true that globalisation opens new prospects that are likely to help improve living standards considerably, it is also true that it is making life more difficult for those who are not in a position to adapt to the change. He stated that globalisation needs to be given a "human face" and kept from deepening the gap between the industrialised nations and the developing countries. "A good many citizens of our developing countries do not consider that the world to be a global village in which they can benefit from the same possibilities as inhabitants of the industrialised nations", said the rapporteur. He went on to observe that globalisation in its present form is producing winners and losers in the economic sphere and is accompanied by fearful social consequences which, in the final analysis, are leading to an upsurge in economic immigration and crime. Mr Nqojane insisted on the necessity of strengthening solidarity and North-South co-operation and proposed that the Assembly reflect upon the capacity for joint action for "organising globalisation" offered by the ACP-EU partnership.
Richard Howitt (Labour, UK) wondered why the European Union, the world's leading commercial power, was incapable of promoting development objectives more effectively at the Seattle Conference. He said the EU should take measures to assist the developing countries, ahead of any new round of negotiations. He notably mentioned: (1) the immediate introduction (and not in 2005 or afterwards) of duty-free access for all products from the less developed world, (2) dropping of the Community refund arrangements for its agricultural exports. Defending the European agricultural model, Astrid Lulling (Christian Democrat, Luxembourg) argued for preservation of designations of origin, which "are not barriers to trade". Caroline Lucas (Greens, UK) noted that many ACP countries had not even sent representatives to Seattle. She noted that what happened at this conference gave rise to a new vision of international trade but that "Commissioner Lamy does not yet seem to have learned the lesson of Seattle". Like several other Members, Mr Baah-Danquah (Ghana) underlined the risk that the developing countries may be further marginalised, insisting on the dangers of destabilisation linked to uncontrolled capital flows. Jonas Sjöstedt (GUE/NGL, Sweden) said that all international agreements should have the same value as the WTO agreement. He argued for democratisation of the WTO, which should be more transparent and guarantee the right of all countries to participate in the negotiations on an equal footing. He also demanded the taxation of international financial transactions on the model of the Tobin tax. Observing that the national budget of the ACP states is no longer approved by Parliament, but dictated by the IMF, Haitian Senator Samuel Madistin commented that globalisation is also likely to undermine democracy.