Apr 14, 1998

 

FEW AFRICANS IN THE WTO'S HALLS OF POWER

 

Harare, Apr 8 (IPS/Lewis Machipisa) -- Whenever Zimbabwe's ambassador to the United Nations Tichoana Jokonya visits the office of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva, he is reminded of the few blacks who used to work for former Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith.  

"The Blacks in Smith's office were tea brewers and cleaners," says Jokonya, who is in the Zimbabwean capital of Harare to attend a meeting of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) trade ministers.  

Though the Africans who work for the Geneva-based WTO, which regulates global trade, are definitely not as low as tea makers, Jokonya says the positions held by Africans in the WTO head office are not worth talking about.

According to Samuel Gayi of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva, of the 450-500 people working within the WTO in Geneva, only five are Africans.  

"With all due respect to my African colleagues in the WTO, they are still too junior to help push forward the position of Africa," says Jokonya.

Ali Mchumo, the current chairman of the African group of ambassadors in Geneva, Switzerland, also lamented the inadequate representation of Africans in the WTO.

Not a single African is in a senior position in the WTO, explained Mchumo who is the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Tanzania to the UN.

"Since the WTO is a world organisation, Africa has a say in the composition of the membership in terms of who mans the secretariat, but at the moment, the few Africans (there) are at a lower level, and it is important for Africans to assume senior levels in the secretariat," Mchumo told IPS.

The call to include Africans at decision-making positions in the WTO comes at a time when the distribution of benefits arising from WTO agreements do not favour Africa. Africa's share in international trade has continued to decline, now estimated at 2.2% in 1997.  

According to Jokonya, having African people in key decision making positions would help the WTO better understand the actual problems faced by Africa.

"That is why most of the times when we meet our colleagues from Europe, you find that they will already have been informed about what's going on by their people in the WTO and yet we will be in the dark," says Jokonya. "As Africans, we know our problems better than anyone and hence the need for our presence at a higher level."

This view according to Ambassador Mchumo is shared by all African ambassadors in Geneva.

While Mchumo concedes that the low levels of African representation in the WTO secretariat is partly historical, he said there was a need to speed up the process and that more Africans should be inducted into high positions in the WTO. "For an organisation to be seen to be universal, the outlook of the secretariat needs also to be universal, not only at a low level, but even among higher echelons," added Mchumo.  

Ambassador Jokonya said Africans had the capacity to work in those positions citing the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan as an example.  

Jokonya and Mchumo are in the Zimbabwean capital attending a meeting (Apr 6-9) of African trade diplomats and ministers in preparation for next month's WTO ministerial meeting in Geneva, Switzerland.  

African trade diplomats and ministers are meeting to discuss how to deal with the two items that will be on the agenda for the second WTO ministerial conference.

The Geneva conference will look at the implementation of the WTO work programme and its future activities. Although the decisions to be taken at the conference would be largely of a procedural nature, they could affect the scope and timing of the future multilateral trade agenda, hence the need for Africa to develop a common position and strategy.

But that is not all that Africa needs to do.

"When we go for negotiations you find that America, for example, will be having 90 trade officers and poor Zimbabwe just has three officers who are expected to negotiate round the clock," says Jokonya. "That's why you find African officials end up sleeping, when others are negotiating. It's not because they are lazy. They are human too and they get tired."

"WTO meetings go on up to three o'clock in the morning. Africa missions are understaffed in Geneva," he added. Besides, not all African countries are represented in Geneva. About 25 African countries have missions in Geneva.

"African countries need to shift from countries where they really need not be, so that we can beef up missions in Geneva," says Jokonya.  

As part of their message to the OAU trade ministers whose meeting starts Wednesday, Jokonya says that it is time for the ministers to realise that "we don't have time for politics anymore". Since the OAU has largely been concerned with politics, Mchumo believes this is why the continental body is not allowed in WTO meetings, even as an observer.

Also, according to trade diplomats, the OAU office and African missions in Geneva need to be strengthened both quantitatively and qualitatively. "We have to unite our frontiers in the OAU so that we can be effective," says Jokonya. But until the staffing levels at the OAU office change, this might be a tall order. The OAU's office in Geneva has no more than two experts. "If we are serious, this needs to immediately change," says Jokonya. "The EU talks as a team. We need to have that kind of competence in the OAU, as no one will speak for us."