Once More

The European Union Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy and his spokesperson have decided to fight India through CII which is part of the official delegation. While on a point on why India and some other developing countries were blocking free foreign investment and other Singapore issues, Lamy on Thursday pointed out that the Indian industry (read CII) was agreeable to free foreign investment and had even committed this in some communication; it was the Indian government which was blocking it. The point was made again on Friday by Lamy’s spokesperson went a step further and released some letter by CII on the issue. The CII has been having sleepless nights over this development as it could embarrass India’s official position and has officially denied this several times. The point that most experts are missing out on is that is the EU negotiating trade issues with a sovereign government or a mere industry association? In this whole exchange it is only Ficci, the other industry association in the official delegation is having the last laugh.

NGO blues

After a Korean activist Lee died on Thursday, the opening day of the Fifth ministerial conference of the WTO, NGOs at Cancun opposing free trade took out a silent protest march in the Convention Centre in Lee’s memory. Only the march did not remain silent for very long. The NGOs entered a room where a briefing was going on and shouted the US spokesperson down. This angered the WTO authorities who put an end to all democratic practices to allow NGOs to interact with the media in the premises. Even sniffer dogs were brought out in a bid to demonstrate increased security arrangements at the centre hosting this all important global meeting. NGOs are now a persona non grata category at the convention centre and have to hold all their briefings at a hotel nearby.

Of badges and strings attached

India, China, Egypt and Malaysia formed another club of G-16 to oppose the WTO slapping clauses controlling foreign investments in their countries is fast becoming a mass movement out here. The alliance which has been in the making over the last couple of days was formally launched Friday, and at the press conference were distributed straps with ‘explicit consensus’ and spasht sahmati printed on it. Not only this, T-shirts with explicit consensus not implied consensus were distributed and were such a hit that they were picked up by journalists and NGOs at lightning speed. Within a few minutes the entire convention centre was full of two types of people: people wearing the straps/T-shirts and those not wearing them. If it was a reflection of the north/south or rich/poor divide, nobody was saying.