The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is launching a massive national and international campaign in opposition to a proposed agreement on Non-Agricultural Market Access (Nama) which is being vigorously pursued by the developed countries and the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
“We will also be opposing the proposed further liberalisation of services through the WTO negotiations,” the union said on Tuesday.
Cosatu, and many other union federations and NGOs around the world, see the proposed Nama agreement leading to a catastrophe, it said. “It is an agreement designed solely to benefit the rich and powerful northern nations, which will have devastating consequences for the majority of the world’s population in the poor southern nations,” the labour federation charged.
It added that this round of negotiations at the WTO was supposed to be about promoting development. “Developed countries were expected to do away with their many agricultural subsidies that distort world agricultural markets, and to give greater access to their own markets for developing countries.
“Once again, however, developed countries have failed to extend a hand of solidarity to the poor. Instead, they are offering developing countries a terrible trade-off. This takes the form of reduced trade-distorting agricultural subsidies and increased access to the markets of developed countries for agricultural products, in return for significant market liberalisation in developing countries, particularly for industrial products.”
It predicted that the current proposals could result in massive job loss and de-industrialisation in South Africa, and many other developing countries. — I-Net Bridge