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Contributions from
the Column
Facts and trends
Preventing AIDS through
social marketing of contraceptives
Guidelines for intervention
German Development Ministry budget for 2005
German Development Ministry concept on fighting AIDS
Malaria vaccine testing successful
Small loans, big impacts
400 billion dollars annually in bribes
“Leave us in peace!”
Separating civilian aid and the military
12/2004
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[ German Greens World Trade Conference ]
“Leave us in peace!”
The leaders of Germany’s Green party could hardly have wished for a better start than to hear that the Duma in Moscow had ratified the Kyoto Protocol. Apart from this welcome news, their “Green World Trade Conference” in Berlin in late October offered little in the way of surprises. Prominent Green politicians, including Federal Ministers Joschka Fischer, Renate Künast and Jürgen Trittin, basically stuck to predictable globalisation arguments, which have for years been about world trade becoming “just” and “sustainable” and including built-in “social and ecological crash barriers.” Referring to the boom in China and India – countries that are certainly among the “winners of globalisation” – Foreign Minister Fischer stated that the market economy had now progressed from a minority to a majority programme.
When representatives of multinational corporations such as Heinrich von Pierer, Chief Executive of Siemens, and Norbert Walter, Chief Economist at Deutsche Bank presented their views on the many benefits of free exchange of goods and services, there were fewer objections from the green Members of Parliament than from the invited critics.
Oxfam representative Michael Bailey and Indian agricultural expert Devinder Sharma both lambasted the “double standards” of the World Trade Organisation. They disapprove of the WTO’s toleration of the fact that the framework agreement adopted in July still allows the rich countries to close their markets to foreign imports. In their view, this goes against the grain of any development round. “Leave us in peace” was the resigned conclusion of the Indian guest, who called not only for the withdrawal of agricultural subsidies in the rich countries, but also for precautions against cheap imports into the developing countries.
Eveline Herfkens, the UN Secretary General’s official observer for the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals, deplored the lack of democracy and coherence among crucial UN committees which did not grant poor countries the voice they are entitled to. Herfkens warned the Federal Government that Germany, the third largest economic power in the world, can only credibly lay claim to a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, if it finally fulfils its promise of allocating at least 0.7 percent of the gross national product to development aid.
Johannes Wendt
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