"Summit for Another World"

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"Summit for Another World"

G8 to Ignore Pressing Global Issues, Say Independent Observers and Organisations

Informal South-North Leaders Dialogue Meeting

Prior to the G8 summit, a "Summit for another World" took place in Annemasse, France, from May 29-31. The summit was called to question the agenda of the G8 summit in Evian from June 1-3, an agenda of neo-liberal globalisation which is widening the gap between rich and poor on an economic, social and cultural level and is destroying the natural and social environment.

The "Summit for another World" affirmed that the G8 summit is illegitimate, and can have no place in a democratic "global governance", saying:
• For sure, each head of state and government of the G8 countries is the legitimate actor for implementing policies in his/her own country and they also have the right to meet each other. But when these eight heads of state and government function like a cartel which imposes political guidelines to the rest of the world their action becomes illegitimate. They have no mandate from the peoples on this planet.
• Furthermore, the issues on the agenda of the G8 summit enter into the framework of the United Nations and should be treated there. The UN should be strengthened and reformed in order to play a real part in maintaining peace, enhancing development, promoting individual and collective rights and protecting environmental equilibrium.

The "Summit for another World" was part of a number of initiatives and actions which took place before and during the G8 summit, including the demonstration held on the morning of June 1, symbolic actions, and alternative villages. The "Summit for another World" renewed a tradition of alternative summits parallel to official G7 summits in France like the "Summit of the 7 peoples of the poorest countries" in 1989 and the "Summit of the 7 resistances" in 1996. The "Summit for another World" held a series of conferences whose aim was to create a space for listening to and making known proposals coming from actors of civil society about issues on the official G8 agenda.

The themes of the conferences in Annemasse included: NEPAD: A opportunity for sustainable development in Africa?; Trade and development: A relationship on trial; Debt: An instrument of domination over Southern countries?; From local premises to globality: the effect of globalisation; Thirst for water, thirst for solidarity!; AIDS and North/South solidarity; What rules for a global environmental governance?; Corporate social and environmental responsibility; Global taxes for financing the development; Anti-terrorism and Human rights; Arms transfers and human rights.

Bruno Rebelle, director of the French section of the environmental organisation Greenpeace, pointed in a press conference to "three simple economic indicators showing the absurd present state of our world". Bruno Rebelle said, "One third of human population, that is, more than two billion people, must subsist with one dollar per day. In contrast the European Union gives out through its subsidies for agriculture two dollars per day for one cow." The disparity is more marked when military spending in the United States is taken into account. "Every citizen of the United States pays three dollars per day to finance the U.S. military machine," he said.

Other activists participating in the counter-summit denounced the huge economic burden foreign debt embodies for the poorest countries of the world.

Nicolas Guihard, of the French NGO Agir Ici! (Act here!), pointed out that despite all measures taken to reduce the debt burden in recent years, these countries are being crushed by over 2,500 billion dollars in foreign liabilities. "Every year, African, Latin American and some Asian countries transfer more than 400 billion dollars to the Northern Hemisphere, only to pay the interests on the debt," he told IPS. "It's about time that this situation ends for good."

Demba Moussa Dembele, a Senegalese activist campaigning for the cancellation of foreign debt, accused the G8 governments of cheating the peoples and governments of the countries of the South. "It is seven years now since the G8 started to pretend engaging themselves in discussions about the cancellation of developing country debt," he told IPS. "But the governments of the richest countries of the world are only trying to dupe us."

As regards NEPAD (the New Partnership for African Development), the newspaper Liberation recalled that a recent meeting in Senegal to analyse how to finance the NEPAD appeared a "as summit of private US operators charming African officials". Nicolas Guihard of Agir Ici! said, "Only six percent of the world's foreign investments go to Africa, and of that small sum, 80 percent concentrate in three countries, especially in South Africa."

In an IPS commentary, Julio Godoy points out that other economic indicators also suggest that the NEPAD objective of reducing poverty by half by the year 2015, are only illusions. To achieve that objective, Africa needs an economic growth of 7 percent yearly. The International Monetary Fund estimates a growth of 4 percent this year, and forecasts a lower growth for the years to come.

Additionally, to boost African exports, it would be necessary that the G8 countries eliminate their subsidies for agricultural production, especially in Europe. According to the IMF, the abolition of subsidies for farmers in Europe and North America would increase African gross domestic product by 0.6 percent per year."

Barry Coates of the London-based World Development Movement said that the 52 HIPCs (Highly-Indebted Poor Countries) owe a total of 350 billion dollars. To the call for the cancellation of the 350 billion dollars in debt, the G8 responded with the promise to reduce the amount by 110 billion dollars, he said. But the G8 later announced that 60 billion dollars, instead of 110 billion, would be cut. And in the end, the approved reduction of the debt has amounted to just 36 billion dollars, or 10 percent of what activists and poor countries were requesting, he said.

The funds earmarked by the multilateral lenders for the HIPCs are even insufficient to meet the goals set by the institutions themselves, Barry Coates said. Moreover, the continuous slide of international commodity prices has made the debt of HIPCs unpayable, he argued. The activist maintained that the G8 would have no problem writing off the debt if the "political will" to do so existed. For example, Britain's share of cancelling the debt of HIPCs would amount to half of what the British government has spent on the illegal and immoral war on Iraq, he pointed out.

Radio Havana Cuba ran the following article datelined May 30

The summit of the Group of Eight, to take place June 1-3 in the French Alpine city of Evian, will not fulfil its own agenda, according to independent observers and organisations that say it will fail to address some of the pressing issues of environment, development and health facing the global economy. The meeting of the heads of state and government of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the United States, Canada, Japan and Russia, was originally expected to address all these issues. But negotiations prior to the summit reportedly downgraded the agenda, which now will be focused almost exclusively on the so-called war on international terrorism.

On environmental issues, the preparatory meetings held in Paris in late April abstained from unequivocal statements that would enhance maritime transport safety of dangerous chemical substances, especially heavy oil. Under pressure from Japan, the G8 environment ministers lifted the ban on single hull frame oil tankers to serve as carriers of chemical substances. Japan also opposed the strengthening of legal responsibility of ship owners. The environmental organisation Friends of the Earth said that Tokyo's opposition reflects Japan's protection of its own specific economic interests – its ship manufacturing industry and its heavy dependence on imported oil – above those of the international community as a whole.

On health issues, the French daily Le Monde reported that the original G8 plan of action to improve the access of the world's poorest countries to medicines has been downgraded. The newspaper affirmed that the French government had prepared an ambitious declaration for endorsement by the G8, drawing attention to the global hygienic crisis and the critical situation arising from the lack of low-cost medicine in Africa, Latin America and Asia. But, reported Le Monde, the US government rejected the plan of action and instead came out with a proposal that dismisses the notion that the price of medicines may be the principal obstacle to an improvement of health.

The US proposal also underlines what it called the "importance of a powerful private sector role" in health questions at a moment when pharmaceutical transnationals selling their products at exorbitant prices continue coming under fire for their insensitivity towards Third World countries. According to Le Monde, the French government accepted the US objections to avoid new tensions between Paris and Washington following their clash over Iraq. The French organisation Doctors without Borders deplored the downgrading of the health issue on the G8 agenda, noting that the number of AIDS victims is steadily increasing as rich nations fail to find a mechanism to reduce the cost of expensive medicines for poor countries.

The accusations that private interests are misusing the G8 summit go even further. The Corporate European Observatory – a watchdog organisation based in Amsterdam – said the summit will also boost the privatisation of water in the countries of the South. The organisation said that the European Union Water Fund plan to be presented at the gathering "seems more about corporate welfare than helping the world's poorest".

The 2003 informal south-north dialogue meeting between leaders of the G8 countries and the heads of state or government from eleven emerging developing countries ended in Evian on Sunday after discussions on cooperation, development, environment, public health and other issues of common concern.

The informal dialogue meeting was held one day ahead of the 2003 G8 summit between the G8 leaders and the heads of state or government from China, Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, South Africa, Senegal, Mexico, Switzerland, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and India as well as leaders of the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization.

In an address to the informal dialogue meeting, Chinese President Hu Jintao put forward a package of proposals for world development and cooperation covering the adoption of resolute steps to boost global economic growth, pursuance of peaceful co-existence and maintenance of diversity of the world, strengthening of multilateral cooperation to promote the establishment of a new world economic order, and the strengthening of support for enriching south-north cooperation.

On the adoption of resolute steps to boost global economic growth, Hu said the increase of global economic growth requires concerted cooperation of the international community and all countries should strive to tap potential for economic development and stimulate the inherent vitality of economic growth while strengthening the coordination of macroeconomic policies, stabilizing their financial markets and maintaining the normal trade order so as to create a favourable environment for global economic growth.

He urged developed countries to adopt practical and effective financial and monetary policies to have necessary structural reform, boost domestic demand, increase import and rebuild market confidence, in order to play an active role in promoting global economic growth.

On pursuance of peaceful co-existence and maintenance of diversity of the world, Hu said steps should be taken to make a full use of the opportunities brought about by the trend of economic globalisation to promote the exchange and mutual study of experience among different cultures and different development models in the world, in order to learn from others' strong points to offset weakness in competition and comparison, realize common development in seeking common grounds while reserving differences and inject vigour in global economic development.

Hu said the establishment of a fair and rational new world economic order meeting the requirement of economic globalisation conforms to the common interests of all countries.

All countries should manage to maintain the authority of the United Nations and give full play to its leading role in safeguarding world peace and promoting common development, he said, adding that developing countries themselves should be mainly responsible for their own economic development.

The international community should be concerned about the plight of developing countries, extend them necessary support, manage to increase their own capacity for development and help them benefit from economic globalisation, he noted.

Developed countries should fulfil their due responsibilities and obligations by further opening markets, eliminating trade barriers and practically meeting their commitments to increasing financial and technical support and debt relief, he said.

All countries should make further efforts to strengthen coordination and consultation and explore the way of forming specific measures and mechanisms, in order to realize the consensus of the international community on development, Chinese president said.

Speaking at the meeting, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva proposed the creation of a tax on the arms trade to help finance a global fund to feed the hungry population in the world.

Later in the day, the G8 leaders also held talks with leaders of NEPAD.