WTO
- Shrink or Sink!
Below
is the international sign-on
letter
"Our World is Not for Sale. WTO: Shrink or Sink"
which
we hope your organization can sign on to. Some of you will
recognize the statement from the original "WTO: Shrink or
Sink" document that came out after Seattle.
The
statement was recently updated in preparation for the
upcoming 4th Ministerial of the World Trade Organization in
Doha, Qatar (November 9-13) and was launched at a press
conference in Geneva in July. There will also be local
events to launch the statement in capitals and cities around
the world in the months to come (stay tuned for more
information).
You
can sign the statement by visiting the web-site of our good
friends at the Council of Canadians (www.canadians.org).
In addition to regularly posting an updated list of
signatories, you will also shortly find the statement
translated into Spanish, Portugese, French, Italian, German,
Bulgarian, Russian and Esperanto.
OUR
WORLD IS NOT FOR SALE
WTO:
Shrink or Sink
It's
time to stop corporate globalization and to fight for
another world we know is possible. In November 1999, the
World Trade Organization's (WTO) Third Ministerial Meeting
in Seattle collapsed in spectacular fashion, in the face of
unprecedented protest from people and governments around the
world. Since then around the world in rich and poor nations
alike, millions of people have joined the fight for a just
and sustainable future and against corporate
globalization.
Despite
the promises to improve the system made at the end of the
Seattle Ministerial aimed at countering the WTO's crisis of
legitimacy, no improvements have taken place and instead
things have gotten worse. The time is overdue to roll back
the power and authority of the WTO. The democratic,
transparency and accountability deficits in this
institution, which supposedly promotes free trade, have in
fact only contributed to the concentration of wealth in the
hands of the rich few, growing inequality within and between
nations, increasing poverty for the majority of the world's
peoples, displacement of farmers and workers especially in
third world countries, and unsustainable patterns of
production and consumption.
The
protestations of workers and farmers, human rights and
environmental activists, religious and indigenous leaders
worldwide and of third world governments regarding
imbalances and problems in implementation of the GATT
Uruguay Round Agreements are being swept aside. The WTO's
allegedly neutral Secretariat, a group of mainly wealthy
governments and the corporate lobbies are struggling to put
the WTO back to business as usual - expanding corporate
globalization. The built-in review negotiations of the WTO
Agreements on Agriculture, Services and Trade-related
Intellectual Property Rights have been steered away from
review and repair, towards further ravage and ruin.
Governments
are being bamboozled and blackmailed to accept a new round
of WTO-expanding negotiations at the Fourth Ministerial
Meeting to be held in Qatar on 9-13 November. Seductively
nicknamed the "development round", the real agenda for a new
round is to expand the scope of corporate access and
privileges under the WTO regime to investment, government
procurement, competition policy, and more.
Such
further benefits to transnational corporations will further
put at risk national and local economies; workers, farmers,
indigenous peoples, women and other social groups; health
and safety, the environment, and animal welfare. All this is
taking place in the context of increasing global
instability, the collapse of national economies, growing
inequity both between and within nations and increasing
environmental and social degradation, as a result of the
acceleration of the process of corporate globalization.
The
time has come to acknowledge the crises of the international
trading system and its main administering institution, the
WTO. It is time to stop the new round and turn trade around
to serve the interest of all. We need to replace this old,
unfair and oppressive trade system with a new, socially just
and sustainable trading framework for the 21st Century.
We
need to protect cultural, biological, economic and social
diversity; introduce progressive policies to prioritize
local economies and trade; secure internationally recognized
economic, cultural, social and labor rights; and reclaim the
sovereignty of peoples and national and sub national
democratic decision making processes. In order to do this,
we need new rules based on the principles of democratic
control of resources, ecological sustainability, equity,
cooperation and precaution.
In
light of the above, we make the following demands of our
governments:
No
WTO Expansion
We
reiterate our opposition to continued attempts to
launch a new round or expand the WTO by bringing in
new issues such as investment, competition, government
procurement, biotechnology or by accelerated tariff
liberalization. Expanding the WTO into issues such as
investment and competition policy or requiring all
countries to adhere to WTO government procurement
rules (starting with an initial phase of transparency
rules), would threaten national self determination and
the survival of small and medium sized local firms and
farms, remove support for local economies, and cause
immeasurable social and environmental damage. We also
reject the new tactics of the European Union in
particular to sneak in investment and competition
negotiations by introducing them as plurilateral
agreements. There must be a moratorium on further
trade liberalization initiatives at the WTO. Instead,
the issues of inequity - implementation issues - for
developing countries must be urgently addressed. These
should not be linked up in the context of further
liberalization negotiations.
WTO
Hands Off:
Protect
Basic Social Rights and environmental sustainability
It
is inappropriate and unacceptable for social rights
and basic needs to be constrained or over-ridden by
WTO rules. Protections critical to human or planetary
welfare, such as food and water, basic social
services, education, health and safety, environmental
sustainability and animal well-being must not be
undercut by commercial agreements. Inappropriate
encroachment by trade rules in such areas has already
resulted in citizen campaigns on genetically modified
organisms, old growth forests, domestically prohibited
goods and predatory tobacco marketing.
Gut
GATS:
Protect
Basic Social Services AND PUBLIC PROTECTIONS
Areas
such as health, education, energy distribution, water,
and other basic human services must not be subject to
international free trade rules. In addition, the GATS
must not limit the ability of governments and people
to regulate in order to protect the environment,
health, safety and other public interests. In the WTO
General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), the
principle of "progressive liberalization" and the
implications of foreign investment in service sectors
has already led to severe problems such as
deregulation of essential services.
Stop
Corporate Patent Protectionism - Seeds & Medicine are
Human Needs, not Commodities:
All
intellectual property policies must allow governments
to limit patent protection in order to protect public
health and safety, especially patents on life-saving
medicines and life forms. The patenting of life forms
including microorganisms must be prohibited in all
national and international regimes. Current
intellectual property rules in trade pacts, such as
the WTO TRIPs agreement, obstruct consumer access to
essential medicines and other goods, lead to private
appropriation of life forms and traditional knowledge,
undermine biodiversity, and keep poorer countries from
increasing their levels of social and economic
welfare. There is no basis for inclusion of such
intellectual property claims in a trade
agreement.
No
Patents on Life
The
patenting of life forms and other intellectual
property rights over biological resources must be
prohibited in all national and international regimes.
Genetic diversity is not a category of private
property and biopiracy or theft of traditional
knowledge must be stopped.
Food
is a Basic Human Right:
Stop
the Agriculture Agreement Fraud and Calamity
The
Agreement on Agriculture is fraudulent because the
subsidies going to export oriented industrial farming
have not been reduced (but instead gone up), whereas
the small farmers are suffering from import
liberalization wiping out their livelihoods and
incomes. To avoid further calamities to millions of
small farmers, action must be taken immediately to
drastically reduce or remove support for export
oriented agriculture and to reverse import
liberalization.
Measures
taken to promote and protect genuine food sovereignty
and security as well as to promote small farmers
practicing sustainable agriculture must be exempted
from international trade rules. The trading system
must not undermine the livelihood of peasants, small
farmers, artisanal fishers and indigenous peoples.
The
basic human right to food can only be realized in a
system where food sovereignty is guaranteed, meaning
the right of peoples to define their own food and
agricultural policies as well as the right to produce
their basic foods in a manner respecting cultural and
productive diversity.
No
Investment
Liberalization
The
WTO Trade Related Investment Measures (TRIMS) Agreement
must be eliminated. All countries and especially third
world countries must have the right to use policy options
(such as local content policy) to increase the capacity
of their own productive sectors, especially small and
medium enterprises. Obviously, the TRIMS review must not
be used to extend the investment issue in WTO. We
therefore reiterate our strongest opposition to attempts
to start negotiations on investment rules, or an
investment framework or an investment agreement of
whatever kind in the WTO. The proposals for a GATS-type
approach, or an initial transparency agreement on
investment, or a plurilateral agreement, are only changes
in tactics aimed at drawing in countries or groups that
have refused to support a more extreme investment
agreement. The objective of giving unprecedented rights
to foreign investors remains the same, and we reject all
these seemingly watered-down approaches which have the
same ultimate goal as the discredited MAI.
Fair
Trade: Special and Differential
Treatment
Special
and differential rights for third world countries must be
recognized, expanded, and operationalized in the world
trading system. This is to take into account the weak
position of third world countries in the international
trading system. Without the enforcement of special and
differential rights, there can be no possibility of third
world countries benefiting from world trade.
Prioritize
Social Rights and the
Environment
"Free
trade" puts corporate profits before people and the
environment. We need fair trade. Fundamental human and
workers' rights must be respected, promoted and realized,
as must the environment, health, education, indigenous
peoples' rights, development, safety, food security, and
animal welfare.
For
example the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and
Rights at Work, the Convention on Biodiversity and its
Biosafety Protocol and the UN Declaration on Human Rights
must be actively realized. The WTO must not undermine
such genuine international social and environmental
agreements.
The
importance of promoting, respecting and realizing
fundamental worker rights and other human rights by all
relevant means includes action at the appropriate
international institutions.
Democratize
Decision-Making
People
must have the right to self-determination and the right
to know and decide on international commercial
commitments. Among other things, this requires that
decision-making processes in negotiations and enforcement
at international commercial bodies be democratic,
transparent and inclusive. The WTO operates in a
secretive, exclusionary manner that shuts out WTO Members
and the public. It is dominated by a few powerful
governments acting on behalf of their corporate elite.
Dispute
the System
The
WTO dispute settlement system is unacceptable in so far
as it enforces an illegitimate system of unfair rules and
operates with undemocratic procedures and also usurps the
rulemaking and legislative role of nations and local
governments.
A
socially just international trade system will also
require change outside the WTO. A socially just
international trade system must take prior account of the
rights and welfare of the workers and farmers who produce
and provide the commodities and services. All governments
and all international agencies must address the attacks
by multinational corporations and governments on basic
workers rights; the reversal of the gains of workers'
struggles; the undermining of job security; and the
race-to-the-bottom in wages. Workers rights must be
strengthened worldwide.
Also,
the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the
regional development banks must write off 100% of the
debts owed to them by poor countries so the countries can
reallocate these funds and use for example for poverty
eradication and development. The use of structural
adjustment conditionality to force trade liberalization
in third world countries and elsewhere must be stopped.
Governments must negotiate, through the UN system or
other appropriate bodies, with full democratic
participation, a binding agreement to ensure that
corporate conduct is socially and environmentally
responsible and democratically accountable.
Conclusions
and Consequences
We
are committed to a sustainable, socially just and
democratically accountable trade system. Thus, as a first
step, we demand that our governments implement the
changes listed in this document in order to roll back the
power and authority of the WTO and turn trade around.
We
commit ourselves to mobilize people within our countries
to fight for these demands and to defy the unjust
policies of the WTO. We will also support other people
and countries who do so with international solidarity
campaigns.
We
pledge to carry the Spirit of Seattle around the world
and ensure that no new WTO round is launched in Qatar.
Signatories
to the Statement (updated August 2, 2001):
Australia:
ACT Greens, Armadillo Adventures, Australia Tibet
Council, Australian Rail Tram & Bus Industry Union
(RTBU), Catholics in Coalition for Justice &
Peace, Community Information Association, Edmund Rice
Centre, Hashomer Hatzair Youth Movement, Information
for Action, Mercy Foundation, PARIAH - People Against
Racism In Aboriginal Homelands, Quest 2025, SEARCH
Foundation, Stop MAI Coalition, Western Australia,
Student Representative Council, WTO Watch Qld,
Austria:
Global 2000, Informationsgruppe Lateinamerika (IGLA),
weltumspannend arbeiten,
Bangladesh:
for Culture and Human Development
Belgium:
CPE- European Farmer's Coodination, Friends of the
Earth, Europe, OXFAM- Wereldwinkels, OXFAM-Solidarity
in Belgium
Canada:
Abundance Consulting, Alberta Council for Global
Cooperation, Canadian Association of University
Teachers, Canadian Auto Workers Union, Canadian
Council for International Cooperation, Canadian
Federation of Students, Canadian Solidarity Network,
Canadian Union of Postal Workers Atlantic (612),
Canadian Union of Postal Workers Toronto (Local 626),
Canadian Union of Postal Workers Vancouver (Local
846), Canadian Union of Public Employees,
Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of
Canada, Council of Canadians, CUSO, Earth Matters,
Eastern Townships Social Justice Committee, Eco-City,
Freedom for Animals, FUNK, Healing Core, Inter Pares,
Low Income Families Together, Mobilization for Global
Justice Vancouver, National Anti-Poverty Organization,
NetEffect, New Green Alliance: Saskatchewan's Green
Party, Nova Scotia Teachers Union, OPSEU (Local 128),
P.A.M.A.I.:People against the M.A.I., People for
Authentic Living, Polaris Institute, Project Citizen,
Project Peacemakers, RAIN- Real Alternatives
Information Network, RyeACTION: The Ryerson Activist
Coalition, Vancouver Island Earth Works Society
(VIEWS), Victoria, LETS, Wilfrid Laurier University
Environmental Club, World University Services of
Canada
France:
Altamira, Amis de la Terre-France (FoE France), ATTAC
France, Communistes en Tournugeois (P.C.F.), ENSEMBLE,
International Union for Health Promotion and Education
(IUHPE), Les Alternatifs, Public Services
International, Ugict/CGT, VAISSIERE JEREMIE,
YHAD-FRANCE
Germany:
Berlin Working Group on Environment & Development,
World Economy, Ecology & Development
(WEED)
Greece:
Association of Social & Ecological
Intervention
Honduras:
Via Campesina
Indonesia:
INFID (International NGO on Indonesia Development),
INSIST Institute for Social Transformation,
Q-bar
International:
Genetic Resources Action International (GRAIN), Rights
Action
Ireland:
Foyle Basin Council/Sustainable Ireland Programme, One
World Society
Italy:
Campagna mai al M.A.I./Stop Millennium Round, Comitato
Scientifico Antivivisezionista, Fondo Imperatrice
Nuda
Kenya:
Resource Conflict Institute (RECONCILE)
Lebanon:
Humanitarian Group for Social Development
(HGSD)
Netherlands:
Both Ends, Corporate Europe Observatory, Dutch
Guatemala Committee, Jongeren Milieu Aktief / Youth
Environment Action, Milieudefensie (Friends of the
Earth), Southern Africa Contact Denmark, Transnational
Institute, X minus Y Solidarity Fund,
Norway:
Norwegian Society of Engineers, The Norwegian
GATT-WTO-campaign
Pakistan:
Development Visions, SAHKAR
Phillippines:
IBON Foundation Inc., Tebtebba Foundation
Slovak
Republic: Center for Environmental Public
Advocacy
Switzerland:
Berne Declaration, CETIM
Thailand:
Focus on the Global South
United
Kingdom: Anti-Globalization Network, campaign for
press and broadcasting freedom, Friends of the Earth
(England, Wales, and N. Ireland), People & Planet,
Sustainable Society Directory, World Development
Movement (WDM)
USA:
8th Day Center For Justice, Alliance for Democracy,
American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees, American Lands Alliance, Anarchist Action
of Rochester, Asia Pacific Environmental Exchange,
Basel Action Network (BAN), BCA Alliance for
Democracy, Boston-Cambridge Alliance for Democracy,
Center for Economic Justice, Concerned Citizens
Coalition of Roane, Calhoun, Co-op America Business
Network, CorpWatch, Earth Island Journal, Endangered
Habitats League, Eugene V. Debs Center for Public
Policy, Fair Trade Federation, Forest Guardians,
Friends of the Earth, Global Resource Action Center
for the Environment, Greater Kansas City Fair Trade
Coalition, Green Alternative, Indiana Alliance for
Democracy, Institution for Agriculture and Trade
Policy, International on Globalization, Metro DC
Alliance for Democracy, Metro-Detroit Alliance for
Democracy, Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition, MoKan
Alliance for Democracy, Ohio Fair Trade Campaign,
Olympia- Unitarian Universalist Social Justice,
Pennsylvania Consumer Action Network, Planners
Network, Project South: Institute for the Elimination
of Povery, Public Citizen, Resource Center of the
Americas, Rights Action, Rochester Food Not Bombs,
Samzidata SOMA, Social & Environmental
Entrepreneurs (SEE), Texas Committee on Natural
Resources, The Network in Solidarity with the People
of Guatemala, United Church of Christ- Network for
Environmental, Virginia Forest Watch, WAGE- West
African Girls Empowerment
Margrete
Strand Rangnes,
Field
Director
Public
Citizen's Global Trade Watch,
215
Pennsylvania Ave, SE, Washington DC, 20003
USA,
mstrand@citizen.org
& www.tradewatch.org,
Ph:
+ 202-454-5106, Fax: + 202-547 7392
To
subscribe to our MAI Mailing List, send an e-mail to
mstrand@citizen.org,
to
unsubscribe,
send an e-mail to mstrand@citizen.org.
Emanzipation
Humanum,
version August. 2001, criticism, suggestions as to form and
content, dialogue, translation into other languages are all
desired
http://emanzipationhumanum.de/english/WTO010b.html
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