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Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul
Moving to a New World Order. Global Structural Policy, Development Policy
and Their Practical Contributions
Mahdi Abdul-Hadi
Israelis and Palestinians: towards a New Chapter of the Conflict
Roby Nathanson
Israelis and Palestinians: the Need for Economic Cooperation
Fritz
Schatten
Return to Where? The Endless Drama of the Palestinian Refugees
Wolfgang Quaisser / John Hall
Making the European Union Fit for Eastern Enlargement
Michael Ehrke
Fresh From the Farm... The BSE Crisis, European Agricultural Policy
and Consumer Protection
Julia Kuschnereit
Trade Policy Against Child Labor? The Limited Effectiveness of Social
Clauses
Shahid Ashraf
Children Laborers Without Alternatives
Joachim Betz
International Labels for the Indian Carpet Industry: Not an Effective
Instrument Against Child Labor
Reinhard Palm
Social Labels and Codes of Conduct as a Means to Shape Globalisation in
a Social Way
Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul
Moving to a New World Order. Global Structural Policy, Development Policy
and Their Practical Contributions
In the globalized world, many public tasks can no longer be managed
at national level, but only via co-operation between individual states.
Here, the poorer countries are increasingly needed as partners for co-operation
(e.g. on climate protection). The rich industrial countries have a growing
interest in ensuring that the developing countries are in a position
to play their part in the emerging structures of "global governance".
Enabling them to do this will have to be a priority objective of development
co-operation in future. In order to reinforce the ability of poor countries
to take action and assume responsibility, holistic approaches are needed
which are oriented towards (a) the social and political structures of
these countries and (b) the international environment. The first component
necessitates a policy on development co-operation which always takes
account of the desired changes in the partner country. The second component
leads to the concept of global structural policy. The global environment
will have to be more development-friendly. For example, the industrial
countries need to facilitate access to the world markets for the developing
countries, they need to free a number of them from the debt trap, and
they need to prevent their development from being impeded by excessively
restrictive international patent law. The World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund have recently taken important decisions towards a more
effective alleviation of poverty. But the necessary adjustments in the
industrial countries themselves are still encountering substantial resistance.
Mahdi Abdul-Hadi
Israelis and Palestinians: towards a New Chapter of the Conflict
The factors which moved both Israel and the Palestinian leadership
to embark on peace talks from 1991 were considerations of political
opportunism. In view of the increasing radicalization of the Palestinian
resistance, Israel wanted to reinforce the PLO, so to speak as the lesser
evil. The exiled PLO leadership feared a loss of control to new upcoming
elites in the occupied territories. Also, both sides had begun to understand
that they could not achieve their respective maximum objectives. However,
events since then have shown that Israel had no intention of granting
the Palestinians full sovereignty, not even in the 22 % which remained
of historic Palestine. Israel proved to be so restrictive and unyielding
on its conditions that there could be no talk of an equal co-existence
of the two peoples. Israel quite simply wanted an end to the conflict
without any concessions. There was no substantial difference on this
between Labor and Likud governments. A genuine peace settlement still
cannot be "sold" to the Israeli people. It is to be expected that now,
following the temporary end to the so-called peace process, new diplomatic
initiatives will be launched to mediate between the Palestinian Authority
and Israel. These will focus not on peace, but on "normalization". Arab
states dependent on the USA - be they Jordan, Egypt, Qatar - will play
an important role. They will try to boost their own international position.
And Arafat will demonstrate once more what a skilled tactician he is.
For the Palestinian people, however, progress will not come until the
Israeli public is ready for reconciliation and exerts corresponding
political pressure. Until then, the course is set for increasing anti-Israeli
emotions - not least in Jordan and Egypt. Probably, peace will not come
without intervention by an international protection force.
Ron Pundak
Israelis and Palestinians: the Price of Peace
Peace is demanding a very high price of Israelis and
Palestinians. The Israelis need to relinquish beliefs which have directed
their policies for decades. They need to give up the territories which
were once regarded as vital to Israel's security. And they need to come
to terms with the idea that those who will take control there are the
ones who had sworn to destroy Israel and had long been regarded as terrorists.
Also, Israel will have to hand over more than a hundred Jewish settlements
and sovereignty over East Jerusalem. The Palestinians will have to finally
accept that more than three-quarters of former Palestine is now Israeli
territory and that the vast majority of Palestinians will not be able
to return to Israel. The Palestinian government needs to proactively
fight the anti-Israeli terrorism of its radical compatriots. In the
Oslo accord of 1993, both sides had agreed in principle to pay their
respective price. The route to a lasting peace was therefore mapped
out, even if not every detail was clarified. It would result in a sovereign,
but demilitarised, Palestinian state basically within the cease-fire
borders of 1967. Major Jewish settlements would be retained by Israel,
and in return Palestine would receive an equal amount of land next to
Gaza. Jerusalem would serve both states as an open capital city. For
the Palestinian refugees, there would be limited reparations, but no
mass return to Israel. The renewed escalation in violence in September
2000 despite the basic agreement between the two sides is due to the
bad management of the peace process. But the long-term direction continues
to be towards peace: the basic understanding which has made the price
of peace acceptable to both peoples remains in place.
Roby
Nathanson
Israelis and Palestinians: the Need for Economic Cooperation
The Palestinians are so dependent on commercial exchange with Israel
that every interruption causes disastrous welfare losses. More than
20 percent of the labor force earn their living in Israel. The taxes
they pay cover 60 % of the budget of the Palestinian Authority. And
Israel is the main export market for Palestinian products. Experience
has shown that every "normalization" of Israeli-Palestinian relations
leads directly to an improvement in the economic situation in Palestine.
And Israel also benefits, since it is suffering from an increasing shortage
of labor. However, the economic exchange is dependent on not being politically
interrupted. Since the outbreak of the new Intifada, there have been
louder calls in Israel for a permanent break in all economic relations
with the Palestinian territories. But this is not a tenable option.
Even though, for the foreseeable future, unstable relations with repeated
escalations of violence form the most likely scenario, an intensification
of economic co-operation would be desirable in the long term. This necessitates
not only political stability, but also a sovereign, functioning Palestinian
state.
Fritz Schatten
Return to Where? The Endless Drama of the Palestinian Refugees
The return of the Palestinian refugees is a key Palestinian demand
in the negotiations with Israel. It is unlikely to be met. The question
of who is regarded as a Palestinian or a Palestinian refugee is unclear.
The Palestinian authorities speak of 3.5 million refugees, but many
of the formerly displaced persons have since become integrated in their
host country. This is particularly true of Jordan and the first wave
of post-1948 refugees. In Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, many former
refugees now form part of the administrative, commercial and educational
elite. At the same time - even in Jordan - refugee camps remain in operation,
symbolizing the continuing claim of the Palestinians to their homeland.
For several Arab governments, the Palestinian refugees are a political
tool to be deployed in the light of shifting political priorities. Finally,
it is unclear where the Palestinian refugees should return to. Israel
will not take them in, particularly following the outbreak of the al-Aqsa
Intifada, which is supported by the Arab minority of Israeli citizens.
But the Palestinian territories - the West Bank and the Gaza Strip -
are already overpopulated, and even before the second Intifada, the
living conditions in the Gaza Strip, for example, were more precarious
than in Baqa'a, the worst refugee camp in Jordan. Moreover, many of
the refugees themselves do not really aspire to a return to their homelands.
Wolfgang
Quaisser / John Hall
Making the European Union Fit for Eastern Enlargement
The planned eastern enlargement of the European Union is an important
undertaking. But judging by the way it is happening at the moment -
following the "Agenda 2000" reforms and the Nice Intergovernmental Conference
- the Union will at most be able to cope with the first round of enlargement.
The future accession of another five to eight countries in later rounds
would ask too much both of the EU's budget and of its decision-making
processes. The EU needs a clearer definition of responsibilities between
the various levels of government. Ultimately, this will produce a sort
of confederation. But it also requires a fresh weighting of the votes
allocated to the individual member states. Otherwise the countries making
net financial contributions to the Union budget will have too little
say in policy-making. If, even after 2007, the EU's expenditure is to
remain within the framework which was set in 1992 and an expansion of
which would not be politically acceptable, two policy areas need to
be thoroughly reformed: the Common Agricultural Policy and the various
structural policies. Agricultural policy should depart from the current
system of price support and move to direct income assistance for the
less well-off farmers. Structural policy should no longer be oriented
towards the goal of supporting regions with weak economies. The top
priority should be the goal of convergence of income amongst the member
states. The assistance from the EU's various structural funds should
almost entirely benefit the new member states in Central and Eastern
Europe. To provide a framework for the necessary adjustments to agricultural
and structural policy, an "Agenda 2007" is needed.
Michael Ehrke
Fresh From the Farm... The BSE Crisis, European Agricultural
Policy and Consumer Protection
The BSE crisis - merely the latest in a series of European food scandals
- was not caused by criminal meat-and-bone-meal producers and feeders,
but is due to an immanent systemic risk in modern chemical veterinary
agriculture. The performance of modern agriculture would be unthinkable
without enormous productivity hikes, which have inevitably involved
a fundamental change in the products and the production processes. Agricultural
products have ceased to be natural products, and have become novel combinations
of chemical and medicinal substances whose effect on the human organism
is frequently unknown. In one respect, agricultural modernisation is
market-driven: agricultural businesses are faced with tough budget constraints
and are forced to cut their costs and improve their productivity. In
another respect, this market is restricted by the common European agricultural
policy, which honours productivity rises but makes production caps unnecessary.
Under the conditions of a modern chemical veterinary agricultural and
food industry, it is virtually impossible to achieve any effective product-related
consumer protection. It is doomed to failure in view of the advocates
of unrestricted market economics, of the agricultural market strategy
of the EU, of the influence of the producers and, not least, of the
vast range of substances and compounds. It would be more effective to
have a form of consumer protection oriented not towards products, but
towards processes. In future, European agricultural policy will be confronted
with the alternatives of far-reaching liberalisation, which would have
to go hand in hand with more effective supervision and a change to the
liability laws, and the continuation of subsidisation, albeit with different
objectives. These objectives can be defined in technological terms (genetic
engineering versus organic versus conventional farming), or they can
be oriented towards certain groups (producers versus consumers) or meta-economic
objectives (environment, appropriate animal husbandry). In any case,
the BSE crisis has certainly politicised agriculture. In future, agricultural
development will cease to be an arcane field administered by lobbyists
and bureaucrats. It will force governments to "act".
Julia Kuschnereit
Trade Policy Against Child Labor? The Limited Effectiveness of Social
Clauses
It is estimated that, world-wide, 120 million children are working,
many of them in inhuman conditions. However, an effective ban on child
labor which does not also tackle the causes of child labor may mean
that the situation of the children worsens. In view of the existence
in many developing countries of an unlimited elastic supply of labor,
the substitution of children by adult workers would not result in an
increase in wages, but in a reduction in family income, possibly below
the subsistence level. On the other hand, an effective ban is a minimal
condition for the "worst forms of child labor" (ILO Convention 182:
forced labor, bonded labor, prostitution, the drugs trade). However,
so far neither national legislation nor international conventions have
proved able to abolish child labor even in its "worst forms". Many ask
for social clauses in international trade as an effective instrument
in international trade. However, social clauses only affect the export
sector which employs but a fraction of the working children (around
five percent). Besides, in most cases, it is virtually impossible to
prove whether child labor was used to manufacture a product. The impact
of social clauses varies, depending on whether they are specific to
products, sectors or countries. They also entail risks such as harming
people who are not involved, impeding the economic development of a
country, and being misused for protectionist purposes. Despite this,
social clauses can help to restrict the "worst forms of child labor"
(not child labor in general) and to improve the situation of the children,
particularly by supporting local groups in their fight against child
labor. At the same time, it is in the vital interest of the children
that the international community increasingly channels its resources
into a direct fight against the causes of child labor.
Shahid
Ashraf
Children Laborers Without Alternatives
Between seven and twenty-five percent of laborers in
the Indian carpet industry are children. The work of weaving carpets
mainly serves to top up the very meager income of local farming families.
But there are also migratory child laborers. Some of the children are
sold into bonded labor by their parents. The loom owners, who themselves
face great economic pressures, have an interest in employing children,
despite their relatively low efficiency, since they are both more reliable
and easier to exploit than adults. International campaigns against child
labor, such as the Rugmark initiative, have helped Indian public opinion
to focus more on the problem of child labor and have resulted in a tightening
of the various laws banning the practice. Child labor has indeed declined
since the beginning of the campaigns. But the situation of the children
involved has not improved much: there are hardly any promising alternatives
to carpet weaving for them. Going to school does not generally point
the way towards more lucrative employment. That would require a rural
development which generates new economic activity. For the time being,
it would be important to alter the structures of the carpet industry
in such a way that there is less scope for exploitation. This will be
virtually impossible without international co-ordination. In order to
achieve a lasting improvement in the situation of the children, integrated
programs need to be developed at the level of local self-government
units (the Panchayats), but there are no patent solutions for such measures.
The international campaigns against child labor should offer their services
as partners here.
Joachim Betz
International Labels for the Indian Carpet Industry: Not an Effective
Instrument Against Child Labor
Labeling campaigns are one of the political instruments used to improve
social standards in developing countries. The abolition of child labor
is a central objective of such campaigns, and the country of preference
is India. A prominent target is the carpet industry, which is an exporting
industry (only 3 % of child laborers in India are in the export sector)
and can therefore be influenced by international campaigns. The introduction
of welfare labels has indeed - as far as can be seen from the inspections
- reduced child labor in the carpet-making areas of India. However,
the effect of the tightening of Indian legislation - perhaps influenced
by the label campaigns - was at least as great. Nevertheless, success
is far from inevitable. Firstly, there is still a lack of sure facts
about the scope and conditions of child labor. Secondly, it may be
that, as a result of successful campaigns, child laborers in the export
industry are forced into even worse jobs in the informal sector. Thirdly,
in view of the size of the Indian carpet-making regions, their infrastructure
and the structure of the carpet industry (village microenterprises)
it is virtually impossible to achieve genuine supervision of the work.
Fourthly, the families of released children need to be given the chance
to earn replacement income or to cut expenditure (assumption of cost
of schooling, etc.). Fifthly, the lack of school facilities needs
to be tackled. This is where foreign support could be very useful.
Reinhard Palm
Social Labels and Codes of Conduct as a Means to Shape Globalisation
in a Social Way
Welfare labels divide the market into "ethical" and conventional segments.
In the "ethical" segment, the consumers pay a higher price than in the
conventional one, but in buying the product they can express their social
preferences and contribute towards an improvement of living standards
in the developing countries. A comparable, albeit less direct, effect
is achieved by corporate codes of conduct. Welfare labels and codes
of conduct are an effective instrument with which to shape globalization
- i.e. to prevent the globalization of commerce from becoming a race
to the bottom in welfare terms. They are more appropriate than trade-policy
social clauses against "social dumping", which often hit entire countries
- and which are not targeted at those profiteering from the inhuman
working and living conditions. In order to be effective, however, the
welfare labels and the codes of conduct need to fulfill certain requirements.
In the industrial countries, they need to provide the consumers with
credible information, and in the developing countries they need to provide
incentives to reorganize production on a sustainable basis. One way
to make better use of the potential of welfare labels and codes of conduct
is to network initiatives and players, and here the state has an important
intermediary role to play.
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