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CAMPAIGN FOR NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE 

Was, is and shall remain in favour of Maltese workers

and against Malta's membership of the European Union

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No one heard Malta’s voice at the meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) that has just been held in Cancun, in Mexico and that has ended up in total failure.

The European Union was harshly criticized for its participation at the WTO meeting in Cancun. Commissioner Pascal Lamy led the representatives of the European Union who insisted that the meeting had to discuss the four subjects that had been raised in a prior meeting that was held in Singapore.

The four subjects are

* the regulations that control prices in trade,

* the regulations that are connected with investment in foreign countries,

* the regulations in the granting of contracts of purchases and of works by governments

* and the facilities that should be granted for there to be more trade by the European Union.

During the Cancun meeting the European Union appeared that it didn’t want to reach a compromise on these four subjects.

Just 24 hours prior to the ending of the meeting, the European Commissioner Lamy continued to insist that negotiations must be held on these four subjects.

It was only on the last day of the meeting, in the morning, that he conceded that only two of the four subjects be discussed.

When it appeared that the meeting was going to end abruptly in failure, the European Union hinted that it was going to accept that only one of the four subjects be discussed.

But this move was made too late and was made uselessly.

The poor countries and those who are developing were decided this time they will not let the European Union have its way.

For them, the subjects that had to be discussed were totally different from those that the Union wanted to discuss.

The poor countries and those that are developing asked the European Union

* to reduce the subsidies that it gives to its agriculture,

* remove the customs duties on the importation of agricultural products,

* not to continue to subsidize the export of its agricultural products,

* to lower customs duties on the importation of products produced in factories

* and remove the control on the granting of services to the Union countries from countries outside the Union.

The poor countries and the developing countries insisted that the European Union in the prior WTO meeting held in Doha, the capital city of Qatar, in 2001, had agreed to discuss all these subjects.

But the European Union in Cancun was not ready to take and measures about them and denied that it had at any time accepted not to continue to give subsidies for the export of its agricultural products.

The measures that the European Union implement means that its agricultural products are cheaper in the markets of countries outside the Union importing them and thus will be killing the agricultural products produced in those countries.

And they also mean that countries outside the Union are not allowed to sell in the Union markets due to the high customs duties imposed by the Union.

In this manner poor countries that are developing cannot compete with the EU in the sale of their agriculture products.

At the Cancun meeting the revolt against the European Union was led by a new alliance of countries that became known as the “G21” because it is made up of 21 countries.

These are:

* Argentina,

* Bolivia,

* Brazil,

* Chili,

* China,

* Colombia,

* Costa Rica,

* Cuba,

* Ecuador,

* Egypt,

* Guatemala,

* India,

* Indonesia,

* Mexico,

* Nigeria,

* Pakistan,

* Paraguay,

* Peru,

* Philippines,

* South Africa,

* Thailand

* and Venezuela.

A number of West African countries also strongly supported the G21 alliance.

The G21 (which means a group of 21 countries) alliance countries together have half the world population and two out of three farmers in the world. Therefore their voice has strength and they were aware to use this strength at the Cancun meeting.

At the same time in Cancun thousands or members of non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) gathered to protest against the World Trade Organization policy.

They were the same people and NGOs who four years previously in Seattle, in the United States, succeeded in disrupting the meeting with their violent demonstrations.

After the failure of the Cancun meeting, in a press release, these NGO boasted that the failure of the meeting meant a (Victory to the people).

The NGOs encouraged the poor countries and the developing countries not to yield to the pressure of the EU and the United states, Japan and other advanced countries.

Now one can expect that when there is a WTO meeting, there will be great protests and demonstrations against it.

In Malta the government appeared to take little interest in what was happening at the World Trade Organization meeting in Cancun. 

Malta’s voice could not be heard because Malta has lost its voice in the EU meetings it participates in.

The EU speaks for all its member countries.

This also means that Malta has also lost at the Cancun meeting because the EU has lost the game.

The worst thing that could happen to Malta is that in the eyes of the poor countries that are developing Malta appeared aligned with their enemies and appeared to form part of the rich EU countries that with their trade policy are causing them damage and preventing them and the developing countries from moving forward.