| News From CUTS - April 2006 |
| South
Asia Civil Society Meet to articulate future strategies vis-à-vis
Doha Round of negotiations |
South
Asia Civil Society Meet to articulate future strategies vis-à-vis
April 22, Jaipur, Press Release The current year is very crucial for the Doha Round of trade negotiations in view of its year-end deadline for concluding the Round. As expected the outcome of the Hong Kong Ministerial was modest but it did throw some pertinent issues for future research and advocacy which are likely to impact on South Asian countries. Based on this Hong Kong Ministerial declaration, core issues viz non-tariff barriers under Non-Agricultural Market Access, trade in services from the point of view of South Asian LDCs, duty-free and quota-free market access to LDCs exports, special products and special safeguard measures in agriculture, preference erosion and aid for trade, have been selected for research by a group of research-based civil society organizations from five South Asian country. The organizations – South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics & Environment, Nepal; Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Pakistan; Institute for Policy Studies, Sri Lanka; Unnayan Shamannay, Bangladesh, CUTS Centre for International Trade, Economics & Environment, India and select experts from the region including UNCTAD–India Programme assembled in Jaipur to brainstorm issues to be captured under these broad themes for further research work. CUTS-CITEE hosted the meeting which was a part of the Project WTO Doha Round & South Asia: Linking Civil Society with Trade Negotiation initiated in the year 2005 with the support of Novib (Oxfam, The Netherlands). The project is commonly known as South Asia Forum for International Trade (SAFIT) and being implemented with continued support from Oxfam Novib, The Netherlands. As an outcome of the first phase of the SAFIT project, a book titled ‘South Asian Positions in the WTO Doha Round: In Search of a True Development Agenda’ was published and released at the recently concluded WTO Ministerial at Hong Kong in December 2005. The volume traces the background of major concerns, examines various ways in which the WTO might be reformed and the chances of success in the Doha Round thus enhanced vis-à-vis five key issues of the WTO July Framework Agreement of 2004. Taking the project work forward to the next phase, the South Asian civil society organizations acknowledged the significance of the need for providing continuous feedback to the policy makers on the ongoing negotiations to enable them to draft pro-development negotiating strategies. It was mentioned that there are common as well as differentiated positions on different WTO issues among the South Asian countries. There is no doubt that South Asian countries share common concerns on development dimensions of international trade. However, it is important to highlight the increasingly evident differences between the developing and least developed countries and the project will specifically look into them. During the discussions in the meeting, it was pointed out that services sector liberalisation is a major concern for developing countries and least developed countries (LDCs) of South Asia. But during the recent visit of Pascal Lamy the Director General of WTO, to India, he stated that service sector is not a major issue or concern at present. In this context it was opined that undermining services sector might affect the timely completion of the Doha Development Round. One of the most important developments at Hong Kong Ministerial was decision to pursue towards full and effective implementation of the modalities for the special treatment for LDCs (adopted in September 2003) in trade in Services. But it was warned that LDCs must be aggressive in services negotiations to reap its fruits. However, on this issue there are differences of opinion among South Asian and African LDCs and the project needs to look into this aspect. The meeting posed a question that would preferential arrangements like AGOA (African Growth and Opportunity Act of the US) and EBA (Everything But Arms initiative of the European Union) be traded off for Aid for Trade? Some participants highlighted that preference erosion was inevitable because of multilateral trade negotiations. However at the same time others pointed that generalised system of preferences such as the EBA are not legally binding therefore preferences could be rescinded at any point. Preference Erosion is not something that can be checked at this stage. To stop preference erosion might be equivalent to stopping the NAMA negotiations. As developing countries, such as India, Brazil ask for agricultural subsidies to be reduced in return for tariff cuts in NAMA, then preferences will be eroded in GSP schemes, especially for LDCs. Removal of equitable treatment through preferences must be substantiated via other means, like easing Rules of Origin requirements in GSPs like EBA, AGOA. Further, it was acknowledged that four countries in South Asia are LDCs and these countries have remarkable differences in their export structure and dependence on international trade. In this context, it was argued that it is important for the project to highlight that the preferential treatment provided to these countries should not be used by the rich countries to create rift between the LDCs. For more information, please contact |
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April 07, 2006, Kolkata, Press Release Rational practices in the sectors relating to health care facilities of our country are being affected by different socio-economic factors. So, in every stage of providing the services in this sectors each stakeholders have to make certain degree of compromise, which ultimately jeopardizing the health sector of our country. This assertion has been made in a panel discussion on “Rational Use of Drug: Are Doctors Alone Responsible”, organized by Consumer Unity & Trust Society, Calcutta Resource Centre (CUTS-CRC) on April 7, 2006, at the Seminar Hall of Birla Planetarium, Calcutta, to celebrate the World Health Day. Dr. Abhijit Hazra, Department of Pharmacology, IPGMER, SSKM Hospital, mentioned different stakeholders like society, government, pharmacy companies and highlighted their role in the entire system of health care. He emphasized that the stakeholders should work freely so that they can provide the best possible service. But many times they work under certain pressure, which affects the efficiency of them and the health sector as well. Mr. P.R.Ghosh, Registrar of the Pharmacy Council mentioned that in US one lakh ten thousand people die every year due to side effects of different medicines. So, in India where there is little awareness among the people on the issue, the situation can be well understandable. He mentioned that 70% of Indians cannot afford drug and the rest who can purchase; most of the cases buy the drugs which are not very rationally used. He explained that in many medicine shops of both urban and rural areas, the trained pharmacists are not present, and this can not be properly inspected by the Pharmacy Council, since they are lacking proper infrastructure. Dr. Krishnangshu Ray, Vice Principal, R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, opined that prescription auditing is the most integral part of health care and in our country it is the most neglected area in the system. He also mentioned that the pharmacy companies are producing the drugs, which are not essential but profitable when come into the market. According to WHO regulation that in 80% cases, there should not be more than 4/5 drug in a prescription, but as he pointed out that this guideline is being violated in most of the cases. The workshop was attended by many NGOs working in health issues and many other health professionals. They highlighted their experience and opined that the WHO’s slogan to “Work Together for Health” can not be implemented unless all the stakeholders in the sector are sensitized enough to deliver their responsibilities. For
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April 03, 2006, New Delhi, Press Release With the deadline for implementation of CAS approaching fast, CUTS International has said that the key to its effective implementation lies in providing for choice of channels to consumers at lower price. The experience of Chennai suggests that Conditional Access System in its present form has not proved successful. A major reason for this is that even with set top boxes, channels come in bundled form i.e. there are 5 to 6 different bouquets available giving no choice to consumers. For CAS to be successful, bundling of channels need to be scrapped. Further, set top boxes must be made available on rental basis and provided in a manner similar to the way LPG Cylinders are available. i.e.Consumer pays a deposit amount for getting the set top box and in case of transfer, can return the same to MSO, CUTS has said. The Channels must inform the consumers well in advance as to the nature of their Channel whether 'Free to Air' or 'Pay'. This is important for the consumer to decide whether he would like to subscribe to the same or not. Once a channel has declared itself pay or FTA, the status should remain unchanged for a sufficiently long period say one year or so. With the long delay in implementation of CAS, a psychological barrier has been created among the consumers against CAS which must be removed. Hence, a full fledged awareness campaign must be launched to make the consumer aware of the advantages of switching over to CAS. According to CUTS, even though there is a crying need to regulate prices and ensure proper service standards at local level, the solution does not solely lie in regulating prices charged by local cable operators, who are very much a part of determining the prices paid by consumers. In fact, in most cases, monopoly of cable operators at consumers’ end is the result of monopoly of the multi system operator (MSO). Hence concrete policies are required to check the behavior of broadcasters, MSOs and cable operators. Given the emergence of alternate delivery platforms, TRAI must ensure that the ‘must provide clause’ for all TV Channels is adhered to in a non discriminatory manner. This would ensure competition at all levels and choice to consumers.
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