MEDIA ADVISORY
Friends of the Earth International
TRADE TALKS: NO DEAL BETTER THAN A BAD
DEAL
GENEVA (SWITZERLAND), July 29, 2005 --
Friends of the Earth International today said
that Governments must adopt a new approach
toward international trade policies following
the failure of talks which ended today at the
World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva.
The group said that no deal at the WTO was
better than a bad deal, after government
representatives failed this week to agree
among other how to use the WTO to open
markets and dismantle a wide range of
national laws protecting the environment,
social well-being and health.
“WTO talks must be halted. There needs to
be a fuller understanding of what is at
stake, who will benefit and who will loose
out. Trade in natural resources may well
generate huge profits for big corporations,
but will leave millions of people who depend
on forests and fish with no livelihood,” said
Friends of the Earth International Vice-Chair
Tony Juniper.
Current WTO talks aim at freeing up trade
in a range of sectors from agriculture to
services to natural resources, boosting the
enormous inequalities that exist in the
current world trading system.
Trade liberalization as currently promoted
by organizations like the WTO is seen by many
as an aggressive attempt to open up
developing country markets for the benefit of
mostly Western multinational
corporations.
In the past few years developing countries
became more self-confident in rejecting trade
'offers' that are presented as pro-poor but
that mostly benefit multinational
corporations and a small elite instead.
According to the environmental federation,
WTO-led liberalization poses a serious threat
to the environment, as well as threaten the
lives and livelihoods of thousands of people
in the developing world who depend on the
natural environment for their survival.
Papers registered with the WTO show that
countries are trying to use the negotiations
to undermine measures designed to protect the
environment, arguing that a range of green
measures such as restrictions on the use of
toxic chemicals and energy efficiency
measures are barriers to trade.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
http://www.foei.org/trade/nama.html
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT FRIENDS OF
THE EARTH:
In Geneva (Switzerland) Alexandra Wandel,
Friends of the Earth Europe: +49 172 748 3953
or email
alexandra.wandel@foeeurope.org
In London (UK) Friends of the Earth
International Vice-Chair Tony Juniper (via
the press office): +44-(0)20 7566 1649 or
email
media@foe.co.uk
or eve mitchell, Friends of the Earth
England, Wales and Northern Ireland +44
(0)207 566 1681 or email
evem@foe.co.uk
In Montevideo (Uruguay) Alberto
Villarreal, Friends of the Earth Uruguay
+598-5228481 or email
comerc@redes.org.uy
In Washington DC (US) David Waskow,
Friends of the Earth US +1 202 222 0716 or +1
202 265 1818 or email
dwaskow@foe.org
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