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15 Sep 1999
A statement from more than 1000 organisations in 77 countries will
be handed to Prime Minister Tony Blair today, opposing the planned "Millennium
Round" of talks in the World Trade Organisation. The UK Government is
supporting the Millennium Round, and Ministers from WTO countries will
meet in Seattle in November to discuss it.
The Seattle summit is likely to see massive protests from groups all
over the world, worried that further "liberalisation" of the world trading
system could reduce the powers of national Governments to impose environmental,
health and social controls on imports. WTO rules have led to major disputes
between the European Union and the United States over banana imports
and imports from the US of hormone-treated beef. The US has also threatened
trade sanctions over European reluctance to import GM food.
The statement to be handed to Mr Blair says that: "in the past five
years the WTO has contributed to the concentration of wealth in the
hands of the rich few; increasing poverty for the majority of the world's
population; and unsustainable patterns of production and consumption
... The WTO system, rules and procedures are undemocratic, untransparent
and non-accountable and have operated to marginalise the majority of
the world's people...
The governments which dominate the WTO and the transnational corporations
which have benefited from the WTO system have refused to recognise and
address these problems.Instead, they are pushing for further liberalisation
through the introduction of new issues for
adoption in the WTO...
We oppose any further liberalisation negotiations, especially those which will bring new areas under the WTO regime, such as investment, competition policy and government procurement. We commit ourselves to campaign to reject any such proposals. We call for a moratorium on any new issues or further negotiations that expand the scope and power of the WTO. During this moratorium there should be a comprehensive and in-depth review and assessment of the existing agreements. Effective steps should then be taken to change the agreements. Such a review should address the WTO's impact on marginalised communities, development, democracy, environment, health, human rights, labour rights and the rights of women and children."
Wednesday 15th September will be a world-wide day of protest against
the Millennium Round plan, the first of a series of events around the
planet in the run-up to the Seattle negotiations.
View the full statement and list
of signatory organisations
Notes to Editors
The following national and local groups in the UK have signed the statement:
Action Aid; Campaign Against the Arms Trade, Southampton; Campaign
for Political Ecology; Centre for Food Policy, Thames Valley University;
Centre for Human Ecology, Edinburgh; Christian Aid;Corner House; Corporate
Watch; Down to Earth; Ealing Trades Council; Environmental Investigation
Agency; Forests Monitor; Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern
Ireland; Friends of the Earth Scotland; Gaia Foundation; Gaia Community
Trust; GM-FREE Magazine; Green Party of England and Wales, UK; Green,
Youth Action; International Society for Ecology and Culture; Institute
of Our Lady of Mercy; Living Lightly; Justice; Schnews; London Human
Rights Forum; London Women and Manual Trades; New Economics Foundation;
Partizans; People and Planet network; Pesticides Trust; Positive News;
Radical Routes; Southampton Animal Concern; Streatham Micro Credit Fund;Sustainable
Economics (magazine of the Green Party, UK); Sustainable London Trust;
TAPOL; Torbay Trades Council, Triodos Bank, Southend Trades Union Council,
Undercurrents; University of London Environmental Society; West Somerset
District Council; Women Working Worldwide; Women's Environmental Network;
World Development Movement; World Development Movement Scotland; and
World Voices.
Contact details:
Friends of the Earth
26-28 Underwood St.
LONDON
N1 7JQ
Tel: 020 7490 1555
Fax: 020 7490 0881
Web: www.foe.co.uk/feedback.html
Media team
