Blocking the Arab League’s participation at the WTO could be “politically

Additional reporting by Tamer Abul Enein, IOL Correspondent 

GENEVA, August 28 (IslamOnline.net) – It was confirmed on Wednesday, August 27, that the Arab League will not participate as an observer in the World Trade Organization ministerial meeting due in Mexico, on September 10-14 after being blocked by U.S. and Israel.

The WTO procedures require the agreement of all members countries to the attendance of any regional groups as observers.

But the U.S. representative to the organization said his country is in no position to let the pan-Arab body attend the meetings in the Mexican city of Cancun, well-placed WTO sources said.

Israel gave no reason for its no decision.

But political observers said that the move came in response to the steps taken by the Arab League to boycott Israeli companies and products and to support the Arab committee on boycotting Israeli and American commodities in a bid to pressure the country into ending its occupation of Palestinian territories.

Others attribute the objection of the two allies to their attempts to preempt grouping Arab members of the WTO under one larger umbrella.

Relations between the United States and the Arab League were recently strained after the organization declined to recognize the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council despite intensive pressures from Washington.

‘Selective Policy’

In a quick response to the U.S. and Israeli block of the Arab League participation, the Egyptian delegation to the Cancun meetings protested against the “selective” policy targeting the body and threatened a retaliation.

“It is disappointing practice taken on no economic or trade grounds,” the spokesman for the Arab group in the WTO said, noting that the group would similarly block membership of any regional or international groups in the Cancun meetings.

Other Arab delegations criticized the U.S. and Israeli decisions, underling that the Arab League plays a key role in coordinating trade agreements in the region.

Foreign countries reacted in solidarity with the Arab position, with Cuba repudiating the U.S. and Israel for what it called politically motivated actions.

Ironically, Israel had been allowed to attend the fourth World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference in Gulf Arab country Qatar, in November 2001, despite outrage spreading in the region over Israel’s military aggressions against Palestinians and its long-standing occupation of Syria’s Golan Heights and Lebanon’s Shebaa Farms.

The ministerial meeting is paid high attention by all countries and civil society organizations, given that it has the powers of the WTO and can take decisions as to all issues stipulated in multilateral agreements at the request of members.

 Salvage

In the meanwhile, an eleventh-hour deal to provide cut-price drugs for the world's poorest people was being finalized in Geneva in an effort to save the Cancun trade summit from collapsing.

After being delayed for nine months by intense lobbying from U.S. pharmaceutical companies, the agreement between key developing countries and Washington is meant to open the door for poor countries to import copies of life-saving drugs without running foul of global patent laws, reported the Guardian.

But fears expressed by U.S. pharmaceutical companies, led by Pfizer, that relaxing the rules will open western markets to a flood of copycat drugs, have forced poor countries to accept strict safeguards against smuggling, added the paper.

The deal, it added, represents a climbdown for Washington, which has single-handedly blocked agreement at the World Trade Organization’s Geneva headquarters since December, demanding that the patent override be restricted to the poorest countries and for a limited list of diseases.

Diplomats said a deal on drugs was the bare minimum needed to prevent the trade ministers' Cancun meeting turning into a rerun of the WTO's disastrous Seattle meeting, which ended in chaos after African countries walked out, reported the Guardian.

Even now, heated disagreements over agriculture and whether the liberalization of trade should be extended into new areas are clouding last-minute preparations for the next month's meeting, it said.

It reported that Washington was under intense pressure to deliver a package on drugs for poor countries after concessions were promised at the WTO meeting in Doha, Qatar, in November 2001, as a way of getting the skeptical developing world on board.

The details were supposed to have been hammered out in Geneva by the end of last year, but the White House vetoed the proposed deal after heavy lobbying from U.S. drug companies.