Global Policy Forum

By Paul Geitner

The contentious rich vs. poor fight over globalization plagued the U.N. summit Wednesday even as negotiators hailed their first breakthrough: a deal to protect the world's oceans and marine life.

Delegates at the World Summit for Sustainable Development are working on a plan of action to reduce poverty and save the planet's resources that all 191 nations present can agree to. Despite U.S. resistance to any new, binding targets, a deal was reached on preserving marine life and restoring depleted fish stocks, "where possible," by 2015.

The United States has said it was opposed to new targets in general because concrete actions were more important than agreements on paper. The U.S. delegation did not respond to four official requests for comment by The Associated Press on Wednesday. No progress was reported on another U.N. goal: a pledge to reduce by at least half the 2.4 billion people without access to proper sanitation by 2015.

European Union officials said they couldn't understand the U.S. opposition. "It's important not only that people should be able to get drinking water but to be able to get rid of waste water," said Danish Environment Minister Hans Christian Schmidt. U.S. officials say they support the goal but don't think new deadlines are needed.

The EU and the United States were working together, however, to highlight globalization's more positive elements in the final summit document, but were facing opposition not only from anti-globalization activists, but developing countries as well. "It's been a sticking point because there is a different perception (between wealthy and poor nations) ... on what globalization has meant," said Paolo Estivallet from the Brazilian delegation, which is representing developing countries in the negotiations.

While past U.N. documents referred to globalization offering "opportunities and challenges," the United States and EU have proposed adding specific references to the benefits of free trade and open markets, diplomats said. Those include the promotion of democracy and tolerance for cultural diversity, a senior EU official said.

Developing countries were opposed to adding new language, Estivallet said. "We are in favor of cultural diversity, for instance, but to presume that globalization has promoted it would be simplistic," he said. "On the contrary, it would be quite the opposite," he added, referring to the deluge of Western products around the world.

He said his group wanted to stick to past texts, which talk about how developing countries "face special difficulties" in responding to globalization and how policies should be directed at making sure it was "fully inclusive and equitable." John Ashe, chairman of the group working on the text, said he included the U.S.-EU proposals in his latest draft, but it would be up to the negotiators. The United Nations hopes to have agreement on the entire plan before world leaders arrive Monday.

The 10-day summit, billed as the largest U.N. gathering ever, is also to focus on health, energy, agriculture and biodiversity issues. Schmidt, whose country represents the EU, hailed the agreement on marine life as "the first major breakthrough" at the summit.

EU officials said the words "where possible" were added because in some cases it was too late to save severely depleted species and in others, not enough was known about specific problems and how to solve them.

The United Nations estimates three-quarters of the world's fisheries are either fished to their limits or beyond. Tuitoma Neroni Slade, chair of the Alliance of Small Island Nations, called the agreement "very satisfactory." Activists also were generally happy that the summit set a target date but expressed concern it was too far in the future to fully protect shark, tuna and swordfish. "The restoration of those stocks is going to be really, really tough," said Sian Pullen, oceans specialist for the World Wildlife Fund. "2015 will be too late."

Outside the convention center, about 200 people protested peacefully, including Johannesburg street vendors decrying police harassment and farmers demanding access to global markets. The protesters marched about a mile to the fringe of the summit site, chanting and waving banners with messages that ranged from "Empower People, Not the U.N." to "People or Pandas."