Without doubt the process of globalization under the World Trade Organization has been rapid. In less than a decade, the WTO has caused massive restructuring of the global trading system as well as the national economies that have caused to adopt the WTO regime. Traditional areas such as agriculture, services, investments and intellectual property rights, which had long been excluded from liberalization have been opened up to accommodate the products and capital of transnational corporations. China's accession into the WTO further speeds up and expands the scope of the globalization process. It will be crucial in intensifying the adverse impacts of the WTO while important social and people's issues remain unresolved.

The WTO stands as the main vehicle of transforming global economics, politics and culture in line with the neo-liberal development agenda.

The 4th APRN Annual Conference in China has been extremely concerned about the negative effects so far of the WTO on developing countries and its threats to major sectors of China's economy.

Researchers from Chinese academics and social activists show that China's accession into the WTO tends to give up national sovereignty and shifts development away from the poor Chinese communities. Local industries have been closing shops or taken over by foreign corporations resulting to increasing unemployment.

In the field of agriculture, non-commercial farmers have been losing in the competition against private commercial farms that consistently alter China's agricultural landscape.

China's entry into the WTO tends to continue the exploitation of Chinese workers whose current working conditions has been below international standards set by the United Nations.

The conference saw that the Agreement on Agriculture has imposed the dismantling of national protection and support for food and agricultural production as well as the livelihood and welfare of farmers and consumers. Trade liberalization under the WTO has resulted in the inflow of cheap subsidized agricultural imports that have put millions of subsistence Asian farmers to bankruptcy.

The GATS negotiations now taking place are putting more pressure to dismantle national restrictions in the services sector to allow the free movement of foreign investments and guarantee foreign investors equal or even more than equal rights with nationals. The GATS is threatening to take away public control and ownership of key economic sectors such as banking, telecommunications and transportation and even deprive citizens of their human rights to basic social services such as water and power utilities, education and health.

The TRIPS has caused the increase in prices of commodities vital to life such as food and medicine and facilitated biopiracy of traditional knowledge. The TRIMS has caused the delegitimization of national protection for local production and promotion of national industrialization.

The conference was even more alarmed about the moves of the industrialized countries to enlarge the mandate of the WTO to include new agreements on investment, competition policy and government procurement. These agreements will further result in bankcruptcies of our local farmers and local firms as it will enable the large foreign companies to enter our countries and operate at will without government regulation. With the new agreements, the WTO seeks to facilitate the process of transnational corporations taking over the economies of developing countries.

The global aggression of WTO has gone beyond economics to politics. As a consequence of its agreements, developing countries are forced to undertake legal reforms that result in the virtual surrender and abandonment of the nationalist and democratic provisions of their constitutions, particularly in clauses pertaining to national patrimony and social justice. The WTO thus threatens national sovereignty and throws independent countries back into the era of colonialism.

In order to counteract the anti-people measures of the WTO and challenge its agenda for neo-liberal globalization, the conference deemed it imperative that -

Developing countries must totally resist all attempts by the rich industrialized countries to begin negotiations on the new issues (i.e., investments, competition and government procurement), as they are more dangerous than the existing WTO agreements.

Developing countries should insist the exemption of food products and the products of small farmers in developing countries from tariffication, reduction of tariffs and subsidies. Governments should assert their social obligation to place quantitative restrictions or to raise tariffs as needed to protect the livelihood of our farmers. Since the people's sovereignty is at stake, the WTO rules based on neo-liberal prescription should never be applicable to food security, self-sufficiency and agriculture.

Developing countries should resist further liberalization of the services sector and promote protection of key industries and social services.

Developing countries should be given full freedom to produce their own medicines and other consumer essentials to provide their citizens access to cheap products vital to life. Patenting of all life forms including genes and microorganisms that threaten such freedom should be banned.

Developing countries should have the freedom not to commit to reduce industrial tariffs.

Asian social movements, starting with this conference, shall initiate an ever-expanding campaign to inform and educate our people on the issues over the WTO and the 5th Ministerial meeting in order to develop a groundswell of opposition to the efforts by the US and EU to initiate a new round of negotiation to expand liberalization and globalization through the WTO.

Social movements should work towards the delegitimization and reversal of the WTO's agenda for neo-liberal globalization.

APRN as a network of research-non-government organization shall continue to provide relevant information and researches on the impact of the WTO agreements as well as analysis of the implications of the new issues and emerging trends such as China's entry into the WTO. In support of social movements and in solidarity with partners in the North, it shall work at all cost to resist and stop a new round of negotiations that may be pushed by the industrialized countries in the WTO Ministerial Meeting in Cancun and beyond.

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