Friday December 3,
1999
Picture
:
Vice Yu from FoE
Philippines, Margaret Jermak from FoE
Poland and Emmanuel Agyapong from
FoE Ghana.
WTO TALKS COLLAPSE
Environmentalists Achieve Their
Goal of No New Round
Developing Countries Stand Their
Ground
The ambitious trade plans of the US,
EU, Japan, and Canada were beaten back
by
dynamic inside and outside pressure in
Seattle. Opposition from civil society
and developing countries stopped WTO
talks.
Environmental, labor, and agriculture
forces dealt a fatal blow to the
head-long pursuit of the global free
trade agenda, although much work
remains to be done.Developing countries
were shut out of the process, not given
critical negotiating documents and
excluded from key meetings. Their
furious response meant that talks had
to be postponed to future meetings in
Geneva.
Here are the details:
1) Investment negotiations blocked.
The EU wanted to launch new WTO
investment negotiations which could
have stopped countries from controlling
inward investment and regulating use of
resources by foreign investors. One
year after the demise of the MAI - to
the day - the WTO talks follow
suit.
2) Forests spared for now. World
forests were spared a US-sponsored deal
to eliminate all tariffs in wood
products, which would have boosted
logging in biodiversity hotspots and
could have stopped timber labelling and
certification programmes.
3) Biotech banished. The US and Canada
wanted a working group to accelerate
trade in biotechnology and genetically
engineered foods. Their ambitious plans
were thwarted.
The WTO will never be the same again.
Friends of the Earth International vows
to continue the fight to dump the old
trade agenda and develop a new,
sustainable, equitable, fully
democratic and locally-focussed trade
system. FOE plans an extensive campaign
on trade in 2000 and will be present
when the parties to the Biosafety
Protocol meet in Montreal this coming
January to fight for a strong agreement
on trade and biotechnology.
ENDS
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