THE MANZINI DECLARATION

Rev. Malcolm Damon represented the SACC at the Conference on Trade, Aid and Investment held at Manzini, Swaziland, organised by the Economic Justice Network of the Fellowship of Christian Councils in Southern Africa (FOCCISA).

A statement by the Economic Justice Network of the Fellowship of Christian Councils in Southern Africa (FOCCISA), gathered in Manzini, Swaziland, from the 3rd through the 5th August 1999, for a Trade and Investment workshop focusing on the upcoming World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting in Seattle, the post-Lome process, and beyond.

Concerned about the continuing global crisis in currency and other markets that has devastated East Asia and sent economic shock waves through our region (as, for instance, in Zimbabwe in November 1997 and in South Africa in July 1998);

Alarmed by growing poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, the all-too-visible evidence of which has been confirmed by recent United Nations studies;

Noting the role of trade and investment in the creation and distribution of the world's wealth;

Realizing that, contrary to claims that the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations produced benefits for all participants, Africa has emerged a net loser from these negotiations;

Recognising that before the ink has dried on the Final Act of Marakesh and its 18 000 pages of market access regulation, the world's richest countries--especially the United States, Japan, the European Union, and Canada--are already indicating that they will push for a new round of comprehensive trade negotiations at the next WTO Ministerial in Seattle, USA;

Convinced that the present multilateral trading and investment system is inimical to the interests of the poor due to industrialised nations' dominance of institutions that regulate global economic networks, the limited capacity of most developing countries to take advantage of provisions intended to improve their access to capital and markets, and the inadequacy of mechanisms to prevent the economically powerful from resorting to unilateral action and intimidation to protect their interests;

and Inspired in all this by our belief in God's sovereignty in all spheres of human endeavour and our desire to be faithful to the spirit of the original development project wherein the Lord God gave the earth to humankind, including 'the fullness thereof', and admonished us to 'share our bread with the hungry, and not to hide ourselves from our own flesh';

We, members of Southern Africa civil society meeting in Manzini, representing ecumenical bodies and churches, academic institutions, women's organizations, national and international NGOs , and some government participants, hosted by the Southern Africa Economic Justice Network, having concluded three days of workshops and discussions, make the following observations and recommendations:

To our Governments in Southern Africa, and to the WTO Ministerial Conference

• The purpose of the WTO, and the 'development' paradigm that it serves -- We reject the supposedly "free trade" approach adopted by the WTO. This cannot equip poor countries to address the development challenges they face. We affirm that Africans have already articulated another development path for Africa, emphasising the need for effective diversification and strategic import substitution. We would like to see, and take part in, the construction of an alternative global development framework--including new approaches to trade and investment--that establishes fair, accessible, and enforceable dispute settlement systems; enables poor countries to develop their industries in accordance with local needs; and ensures that technology is used to benefit all people, not just an elite.
  
• The place of poor countries, particularly Africa, in the WTO system -- While other regions of the world reap the Uruguay Round's benefits for themselves, Africa's share of global trade has slipped to less than 2 per cent. We challenge the notion that Africans themselves are responsible for this decline. It is instead a consequence of a complex system of international production and distribution that effectively enables the rich to appropriate the natural and human resources of the poor. Industrialised countries must acknowledge their role in constructing and maintaining these exploitative patterns. We maintain that it is possible to design a package of multilateral trade restructuring that provides appropriate protection for emerging markets and industries in developing countries, allowing these nations to become part of a genuinely interdependent international economy rather than mere market peripheries of the developed centre.
  
• The Seattle meeting and the need to review the Uruguay Round -- We say no to a new round of comprehensive trade negotiations. Instead, the WTO's priority should be to review the Uruguay Round. Although the Seattle Ministerial has a built-in agenda, this should not stop the meeting from embarking on a review. This should introduce new mechanisms to promote poverty reduction and sustainable development and should facilitate greater participation by developing countries and civil society in the formulation of international trade policy. We call upon the governments of Southern Africa to strengthen--or, where necessary, to establish--linkages with civil society and social movements. This will enhance their ability to build the African Consensus that the region needs in order to strengthen its voice on the international stage. In this regard, we have noted the lack of involvement of civil society in the formulation of the African agenda to the Seattle meeting by our Governments. Accordingly, we demand meaningful consultation on these matters through the Algiers meeting and other fora.

• Additional specific issues from the region -- We call for:

• the revision of the Agreement on Agriculture to reflect the food security concerns of developing countries;

• the lifting of non-tariff barriers on commodities, such as textiles, where the developing world has already achieved a high degree of global competitiveness;

• the Agreement on Services to enable the free movement of citizens of the developing into the developed world;

• access to essential medicines for the world's poor, which must take precedence over patenting through TRIPs;

• a campaign against the resurrection of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) in the guise of TRIMs, post-Lome frameworks, or any other strategy;

• affirmation of the right of poor nations to regulate investment in the interests of domestic development and poverty eradication needs; and

• trade and investment policies that do not assume that poor countries' 'comparative advantage' lies in the perpetual production of primary commodities -- effectively a comparative advantage in poverty.
  

To the Churches in Southern Africa

We affirm that it is time to heed the prophetic voices of those who have applied God's call to justice to contemporary economic institutions. We fail God's commission when we do not inform ourselves about the economic realities around us, and when we mumble, rather than shout, the principles of God's justice.

We commit ourselves, as Church leaders and lay professionals in the Church, to inform ourselves and others about the world economy, including trade and investment matters; to lobby multilateral institutions, including the WTO, to establish a more just economic order; to promote democracy within the Church; to enhance our capacity to mobilize popular support for fair trade and investment policies and practices in the new millennium.