THE HONGKONG DECLARATION on WTO, DEVELOPMENT and MIGRATION
July 2005 (Hong Kong)

MFA Press Conference airing the MFA Declaration the day after the conference.

Theme: "Building Migrant and People’s Solidarity in Challenging Neoliberal Development and WTO"

We, 70 participants from 16 Asian countries, representing migrant, trade, development, labour, women’s and social action groups and networks, came together for the “Regional Conference on WTO, Development and Migration: Building Migrant and People’s Solidarity in Challenging Neoliberal Development and WTO” on 17-19 July 2005 in Hong Kong. This conference – jointly organised by the Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA), Coalition for Migrants’ Rights (CMR), Focus on the Global South, Jubilee South / Asia-Pacific Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD) and the Asian Migrant Centre (AMC) – brings together key migration, trade and development movements to converge our efforts on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the 6^th Ministerial Conference in December 2005 in Hong Kong.

We have fought for decades for migrants’ rights, and struggled against anti-people development agendas and processes, including onerous foreign debt, structural adjustment programmes, and neoliberal globalisation.

This conference builds upon previous anti-globalisation initiatives around the region, such as the Colombo Meeting (2005), Asian Social Movement assemblies (2002, 2003, 2004), people’s forums against APEC/ASEM (yearly since 1995) and other regional meetings on trade and debt.

Joint Declaration

We declare that derailment is our strategy, and are working towards that objective at the 6^th Ministerial Conference (MC6) in Hong Kong.

We uphold the positions of the Colombo Declaration on the current status of the WTO, the July Framework Agreement[1] and the undemocratic negotiation processes in the WTO.  We uphold the declarations[2] of the Migrant Forum in Asia and advocates in rejecting the neoliberal agenda, as embodied by the IMF/WB, WTO, APEC and ASEM, as anti-migrant and anti-people. We reiterate our commitment to “imagine and construct an alternative world based on the fundamental principles respecting human rights and human dignity.”[3]

As the WTO’s crisis of legitimacy deepens in its 10^th year, we mobilize to exacerbate its internal contradictions, and expose its inherent nature as undemocratic, corporate-driven, anti-poor, anti-women, anti-development and illegitimate.

We recall with pride the historic success achieved by the people’s movements at Seattle and Cancun in derailing the Ministerial meetings of the WTO in 1999 and 2003 respectively. 

Crucial meetings of the WTO General Council will be held in July and October 2005. There is a real danger that negotiators will use these meetings to force a backdoor deal before the Hong Kong MC6, as they did in July 2004 in Geneva. We will work with the Geneva People’s Alliance to counter this.

Based on a rights, needs and gender framework, we assert that the WTO is inherently contradictory to human rights and democratic principles, as entrenched in unfair agreements such as the GATS and AoA.

We reject the WTO’s services agreement (GATS) that institutionalises the commodification of people.

Current negotiations in the WTO are leading developing countries towards false choices. In the GATS Mode 4 negotiations, developing countries trade-off policy space in agriculture and industry to gain access to labour. We reject this framework that treats workers, women and migrants as tradeable commodities.

We reject the AoA framework that has caused the widespread collapse of rural economies, displacing communities and increasing forced internal and external migration.

The WTO, International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB), Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) are all complementary in pushing the neoliberal agenda of the trading powers and corporations. Our campaign therefore must be comprehensive in opposing all of these.

We shall strengthen and expand our solidarity with movements fighting against the WTO and neoliberal agendas. We shall work with peasants, fisherfolks, labor, women and other sectors to build common platforms for action and alternatives.

Calls

Conference panelists answer questions from the participants.

Joint Actions/Strategies

Immediate

Strategy beyond 2005

We recognise that ours is an ongoing struggle that will build momentum as it links with, and contributes to, other processes initiated and taken up by Asian social movements.

We will undertake further studies to look at the complex linkages between remittances and development, as well as GATS and migration.

We will continue to build sub-regional formations and networks to expose the WTO through mass education, capacity building, national level demonstrations, and media campaigns.

Finally we will continue to pressure our governments to uphold people’s rights and national interest and refrain from furthering the WTO agenda.

Conference Participants:

Action Network for Migrants (ACTFORM)

Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK)

All-Nepal Women’s Association (ANWA)

Alliance of Progressive Labour (APL)

Asia-Pacific Alliance of YMCA's

Asian Domestic Workers Union (ADWU)

Asian Migrant Centre (AMC) 

Center for Indonesian Migrant Workers (CIMW)

Center for Migrants Advocacy (CMA)

Centre for Education and Communication (CEC)

Charles Hector and Co.

Coalition Against Trafficking in Women – Asia Pacific (CATW-AP)

Coalition for Migrants Rights (CMR)

Far East Overseas Nepalese Association (FEONA)

Filipino Domestic Helpers General Union (FDHGU)

Focus on the Global South

Freedom from Debt Coalition

Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES)

Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU)

Hong Kong People's Alliance (HKPA)

Hope Workers Centre

Indonesian Migrant Workers Union (SBMI)

Indonesian Migrant Workers Union (IMWU)

International Gender and Trade Network (IGTN)

Jarnas Pekabumi

Joint Committee for Migrant Workers in Korea (JCMK)

Jubilee South – Asia Pacific Movement on Debt and Development (JS – APMDD)

Kanlungan Center Foundation, Inc.

Kapisanan ng Kamag-anakan ng mga Manggagawang Migranteng Pilipino (KAKAMMPI)

KOPBUMI

Korean People's Solidarity

Mekong Migration Network (MMN)

Migrant Care

Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA)

Migrant Forum India

Migrants - Mahabubnagar District Palamoori Contract Labor Union (Union)

Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU)

Solidaritas Perempuan

St. Francis Workers Centre

Stop the New Rounds

Ta’amneh Law Firm

Unlad Kabayan Migrant Services Foundation, Inc.

Welfare Association for Repatriated Bangladeshi Employees (WARBE)

Woman Health Philippines

Women Rehabilitation Centre (WOREC)