UNI has got together with a number of NGO's to discuss development issues before the start of the WTO Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong. UNI's main concern has been with the WTO plans to open up the services sector. The seminar was part of the attempt to reach out to civil society groups to work together on common problems.
There were more than 50 participants in a seminar held 10-11 December in Hong Kong. UNI affiliates from Hong Kong, Philippines and Malaysia were represented as well as UNI DGS Philip Bowyer and E.Ito Director of UNI Tokyo Office.
NGOs taking part included Christian Aid, Fair Trade Alliance, Asia Monitor Resource Centre, Asia Pacific Network for Food Sovereignty and the HK People's Alliance on WTO.
Ito spoke on the situation in Japan and in particular the possible consequences for postal services of liberalisation of services, Philip Bowyer in addition to questions related to the sectors where UNI is present, stressed the need to highlight questions of the abolition of poverty and development, the inclusion of trade union and human rights, the so-called social clause and the necessity of a real reform of systems of subsiding agriculture , if real progress is to be made in making world trade free and fair.
The seminar in particular looked at the SDT, Special and Differential Treatment , a concept designed to give developing countries a certain flexibility to adapt to changes but little used in practise. |  |  UNI's Philip Bowyer at seminar in Hong Kong |