[Fwd: (mai) Official Press Release from EU Japan]
Here is the the official press release from EU and Japan meeting. They are setting clear goals and timelines for the launching investment negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO). Included is also some additional news stories on the meeting between Japan and the EU. As many of you know, the WTO Ministerial Meeting will be held in the US in December of '99. Several countries are pushing for a move of the MAI to the WTO, and want to see this happen in this upcoming year. The MAI Agenda is obviously not dead! . To learn more about the WTO, check out the website of Third World Network at http://www.twnside.org.sg/ or at Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch's homepage www.tradewatch.org *** http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gtdoc=IP/9 9/6|0|RAPIDlg=EN Joint Press Release: Meeting between Sir Leon Brittan and MITI Minister Kaoru Yosano DN: IP/99/6 Date: 1999-01-07 TXT: FR EN PDF: FR EN Word Processed: FR EN IP/99/6 Brussels, 7 January 1999 Joint Press Release: Meeting between Sir Leon Brittan and MITI Minister Kaoru Yosano Sir Leon Brittan, Vice-President of the European Commission and Mr. Kaoru Yosano, Minister of International Trade and Industry of Japan, met in Brussels on 7 January 1999. Their discussions resulted in the following general conclusions. 1. Global economy Vice-President Brittan and Minister Yosano recognised the joint responsibility of the EU and Japan, as two of the major economies in the world, to ensure global economic stability and to strengthen growth. They welcomed the launch of the euro on 1 January 1999 noting that the support of the currency by sound macroeconomic and structural policies will create stability and ensure that the euro will be beneficial for international trade and financial markets. They shared the view that the restoration of confidence is a prerequisite for durable domestic demand-led growth in Japan which is an essential element in supporting global economic growth. They also shared the view that the implementation of the recent economic and financial measures adopted by the Japanese government will contribute to economic recovery in Japan. 2. Multilateral issues Both sides welcomed the consultation process launched between the Commission and the Japanese government to achieve, whenever possible, common positions and strategies with a view to preparing the 1999 WTO Ministerial Conference and the subsequent multilateral trade negotiations. They looked forward to build upon the positive preparatory work already undertaken by the Commission and the Japanese government in December 1998 in Tokyo. They reiterated that strengthening the multilateral trading system and taking a new decisive step in the process of multilateral trade liberalisation would stimulate the world economy and facilitate the restoration of confidence and stability. Both sides underlined their strong support for comprehensive trade negotiations to be launched at the WTO Ministerial to be held in late 1999. These negotiations, which are scheduled to start in the year 2000, could include, in addition to agriculture and services, a comprehensive approach to the liberalisation of industrial tariffs, the development of WTO rules in new areas under the Singapore Work Programme and other issues relating to existing WTO rules. They stressed the importance of the work being undertaken in the WTO on investment and competition. They welcomed the large degree of commonality in their position on investment, and underline the importance of further coordinating their position on competition. Both sides shared the objective that negotiations should be based on the principle of a single undertaking to be completed within a time frame of approximately three years. They stressed that comprehensive negotiations are essential to ensure that the interests of all WTO members are reflected in a balanced manner. They affirmed the importance of the Quadrilateral Trade Ministers' Meeting in spring this year to give further political momentum to the preparatory process for the next WTO comprehensive trade negotiations. They emphasised the importance of the active participation by developing countries in the forthcoming negotiations. In addition, they will work together with other Asian partners through ASEM in order to gather support for such negotiations and, in this context, highlighted the significance of the forthcoming ASEM Economic Ministers' Meeting later this year. They emphasised that, at a time of instability in the world economy, it was essential for all countries to maintain open markets, resist protectionist pressures and develop the momentum for comprehensive negotiations for further liberalisation by building on current levels of market access, undertaking regulatory and structural reforms and providing a receptive climate for investment. They agreed that the full respect
This nicely sums up the Capitalistic Mess
A nice little thought piece from Le Monde LE MONDE DIPLOMATIQUE - January 1999 LEADER Towards a new century by IGNACIO RAMONET As we approach the start of a new century, how best to sum up the state of the world in which we live? The United States now dominates the world as no country has done before. It has overwhelming supremacy in the five key areas of power: political, economic, technological, cultural and military. In the Middle East it has just given the world a threefold display of its hegemony: bombing Iraq and its people without serious cause, ignoring (if not dismissing) international legality embodied in the United Nations, and enrolling the once proud forces of Great Britain as simple auxiliaries. But this display of power is deceptive. The US does not have the option of occupying Iraq militarily, even if technically it can do so. Military supremacy does not automatically translate into territorial conquests which have become politically non-viable, too costly, and disastrous in media terms. The media now have a prime strategic role. As Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has put it, CNN has become the sixth member of the UN Security Council. What's more, in this neo-liberal age being a superpower doesn't guarantee a decent level of human development. The US has 32 million people with a life expectancy of less than 60 years; 40 million without medical cover; 45 million living below the poverty line; and 52 million who cannot read or write. And the European Union, with its euro and all its wealth, has 50 million people living in poverty and 18 million unemployed. All over the world, poverty is the rule and a decent income the exception. Inequality has become one of the abiding characteristics of our time. And it is getting worse, as the gap between rich and poor increases. The 225 largest fortunes in the world total more than $1,000 billion - equivalent to the annual income of 47% of the poorest of the world population (2.5 billion people). We now have individuals who are richer than whole countries: the wealth of the world's 15 richest people exceeds the total GDP of sub-Saharan Africa. Since the start of the 20th century the number of countries has grown from about 40 to nearly 200 (see Pascal Boniface's article in this issue). Yet our world continues to be dominated by the same seven or eight countries that were running it at the end of the 19th century. Out of the dozens of states that emerged from the dismantling of the old colonial empires, just three (South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan) have reached levels of development comparable with those of the information-economy countries. The others are stuck in a state of chronic underdevelopment. It will be extremely hard for them to break out of this since the raw materials on which most of their economies depend are falling dramatically in price. And some natural materials (metals and fibres) are now either falling out of use or being replaced with substitutes. In Japan for instance, consumption of raw materials by unit of production has fallen by 40% since 1973. The new wealth of nations is built on brains, know-how, research and the capacity for innovation, and no longer on the production of raw materials. You could even say that in the post-industrial age the three traditional measures of power - the size of a country, its population and its wealth in terms of raw materials - are no longer advantages but handicaps. Countries that are large, heavily populated and rich in raw materials - like India, China, Brazil, Nigeria, Indonesia, Pakistan, Mexico and Russia - are paradoxically among the world's poorest. The United States is the exception that no longer confirms the rule. There is an increasing air of generalised chaos afflicting more and more countries with economic stagnation or endemic violence (since 1989, the end of the cold war, there have been around 60 separate armed conflicts, leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths and more than 17 million refugees). It has got to the point where (in the Comoros and Puerto Rico, for instance) we are seeing people turning their backs on the struggle for independence and calling for a return of the old colonial power or absorption into the metropolitan country... The third world has ceased to exist as a political entity. All this gives a sense of the crisis of politics and the nation-state at a time when the second industrial revolution, the globalisation of the economy and major technological change are transforming the world as we know it. There is
