media advisory
Friends of the Earth International
December 8, 2005
tyranny of free trade exposed in new
report
www.foei.org/publications/pdfs/tyranny.pdf
BRUSSELS (BELGIUM) / MONTEVIDEO (URUGUAY)
/ WASHINGTON DC (US) December 8, 2005 – Only
a few days before the December 13 start of
negotiations at the World Trade Organization
(WTO) meeting in Hong Kong (China), a new
report exposes the danger that current trade
negotiations pose to people and their
environments around the world.
'The Tyranny of Free Trade' was produced
by Friends of the Earth International, the
world's largest grassroots environmental
federation [1].
Through a series of a dozen case studies
from Denmark to Indonesia, the report
highlights the environmental and social
impacts that current‘free' trade policies
have in essential areas including forests,
fisheries, food, minerals, water and
biodiversity.
The new 36-page report asserts that.
intensive agricultural practices and
liberalized international trade are leading
to social disruption, environmental damage
and even hunger, particularly in developing
countries. Furthermore, small-scale farmers
are particularly vulnerable to market opening
pressures and often forced from their land
when it is converted to plantations or
planted with crops for export.
Examples from the Philippines, Indonesia
and the Seychelles support the assertion that
the 40 million small-scale fishers who depend
on the ocean's resources to feed their
families could be out-competed if the WTO
cuts tariffs in fisheries as proposed. Trade
measures used to protect small-scale fisher
folk, including in developing countries,
would have to be removed.
“The myth of unfettered free trade as a
solution to poverty needs to be exploded.
Regional and bilateral trade agreements
running in parallel are as untransparent and
as harmful as the WTO,” said one of the
report's authors, Ronnie Hall of Friends of
the Earth International
“What we need now is a halt to trade
liberalization negotiations and an urgent
review of the impacts of international trade
rules on the impoverished and the
environment," she added.
Current WTO talks aim at freeing up trade
in a range of sectors from agriculture to
services to natural resources. Because the
poorest are the most reliant on access to
natural resources, for food, medicines and
fuel as well as a resource for their
livelihoods, this could boost the enormous
inequities that already exist in the current
world trading system, making the poor even
poorer and the rich even richer. [2]
For more information about the WTO and
trade talks see:
www.foei.org/wto
campaigners available for comment in hong
kong
December 11-19:
Friends of the Earth campaigners (from
Australia, Germany, Haiti, Indonesia,
Mauritius, Malaysia, Norway, the Philippines,
Switzerland, Togo, United Kingdom, United
States, and Uruguay) will be in Hong Kong to
expose how current and proposed trade rules
negatively impact the natural environment and
poor farmers, workers, fisher folks and
indigenous peoples.
for more information contact:
In Washington DC (US) David Waskow,
Friends of the Earth International
Trade Campaign + 1 202 492 4660 or email
dwaskow@foe.org
(December 11-19 in HONG KONG: +852 6127
8644)
In Brussels (Belgium) Alexandra Wandel,
Friends of the Earth Europe: +49
172 748 3953 or email
alexandra.wandel@foeeurope.org
(December 11-19 in HONG KONG: +852 6125
7644)
In London (UK) Ronnie Hall, Friends of the
Earth International Trade Campaign +44 7967
017281 or email
ronnieh@foe.co.uk
(December 11-19 in HONG KONG : +852 6129
0419)
In Montevideo (Uruguay) Alberto
Villarreal, Friends of the Earth
International Trade Campaign +598-5228481 or
email
comercioredes@gmail.com
(December 11-19 in HONG KONG: +852 6127
0200)
notes to editors:
[1] Friends of the Earth International is
the world's largest grassroots environmental
federation with 71 national member groups in
70 countries and 1.5 million individual
members and supporters. Friends of the Earth
International does not have a member group in
Hong Kong. ‘Friends of the Earth Hong Kong'
is not a member of Friends of the Earth
International.
[2] According to the 2003 book ‘Making
global trade work for people' published by
United Nation Development Program (page 33),
“liberalizing trade does not automatically
ensure human development, and increasing
trade does not always have a positive impact
on human development. The expansion of trade
guarantees neither immediate economic growth
nor long-term economic or human development.”
The book is online at
http://www.undp.org/mdg/globaltrade.pdf
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