|
PRESS
RELEASE
November 30, 1999
EC’s Sustainability Impact
Assessment of New Trade Round is
nothing more than PR exercise, says
Friends of the Earth Europe
Seattle. Friends of
the Earth Europe (FoEE), the largest
federation of independent grassroots
environmental
organisations in Europe, notes with
concern first results of the EC’s
commissioned Sustainability Impact
Assessment Study of the New Round of
Trade Negotiations. "We see the Study
mainly as a PR exercise of the European
Commission which is under sever
pressure from civil society " says
Alexandra Wandel, trade and
sustainability co-ordinator of
FoEE.
The EC is criticized by many
non-governmental organisations because
of its efforts to initiate a broad
based new trade round and to broaden
the WTO agenda with controversial
issues such as investment, competition
and government procurement. The US is
also pressuring for biotechnology and
liberalisation of forest products to be
negotiated in the new round; mass
protest from a broad coalition of
non-governmental organisations is
staged in Seattle today.
According to FoEE, the on-going EC
Study has several shortcomings. First
of all it does not properly assess
negative environmental, social and
gendered implications of already
existing WTO rules and agreements and
ignores that the underlying economic
principles of the world trade system
are flawed. Secondly, the EU’s
negotiations position has not changed
at all despite that fact that the study
indicates negative environmental
impacts in a number of areas. FoEE also
criticizes that the Study does not
properly assess possible dangers of
liberalisation in further areas, in
various disputable areas such as
genetically modified food and the
undermining of international, national
and local environmental standards.
"The European Commission says that
sustainability will be at the heart of
a new comprehensive new round of trade
negotiations and that civil society
concerns will be taken into
consideration. This does not reflect
reality at all. 1448 organisations from
89 countries have called on governments
to cease plans for a comprehensive new
round and have called for an
independent in-depth review of existing
agreements rules in the Statement of
International Civil Society Opposing a
New Round of Trade Negotiations, the
so-called Seattle Declaration. The EU
does not listen to our demands. Such a
review is urgently needed to provide
opportunity for society to develop a
sustainable, more equitable and
democratic trading system" says
Wandel.
For further information and to
obtain a detailed position paper of
Friends of the Earth on the WTO, please
contact:
Alexandra Wandel, Friends of the
Earth Europe, tel: 206-953 0755
|
