Archived press release

WTO talks threaten livelihoods, but fisheries may escape the net

13 December 2005

On the day trade ministers from 149 nations meet in Hong Kong to press on with lowering trade barriers through the World Trade Organisation (WTO), support for a plan to increase pressure on beleaguered fish stocks is waning. Friends of the Earth is warning that talks cannot succeed in reducing global poverty without putting management of environmental resources at the top of the agenda.

Preliminary research by Friends of the Earth shows that a proposal for full liberalisation in fisheries, already problematic, lacks support by WTO member countries and cannot go forward in the negotiations. [1]

Friends of the Earth's Head of Trade, Eve Mitchell, said:

"The lack of support for full liberalisation of fishing shows that the impact on the environment at these talks just hasn't been thought through. Fisheries and forests should not be part of the talks. Millions of people depend on these natural resources for day to day survival and this must be taken into account."

WTO proposals to fully eliminate tariffs in several sectors, like forests, fisheries and minerals, would increase trade in those sectors, which could have extremely serious consequences for millions of people dependent upon them for their livelihoods. These critical areas are proposed for complete liberalisation even though they are already severely degraded. Furthermore there is increasing evidence that the economic benefits from liberalisation will not materialise for poor countries. Local people, including indigenous populations, risk losing access to their traditional resources, food and medicines if WTO agreements say they must be exported.

Despite the fact that current trade talks are allegedly based on "development", the focus of the talks has in fact shifted, with industrialised countries now putting heavy pressure on poorer countries to open up their markets for the benefit of our multinational companies. [2]

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 where the poorest get poorer and the richest get richer.

Notes

[1] However Japan, South Korea and Taiwan have explicitly rejected an initiative for complete liberalisation of fisheries (WTO paper TN/MA/W/6/Add.3) proposed by Canada, New Zealand, Norway, Iceland, Singapore, Thailand (TN/MA/W/63 18 October 2005). The EU has recently become more ambivalent to such a move (see europa.eu.int/comm/trade/issues/newround/hk/environment_en.htm). Canada and the US have suggested that such sectoral talks would probably require countries responsible for 80-90% of world trade in a given sector (TN/MA/W/55) to give their blessing in order for any initiative to go forward, but Friends of the Earth believes that this plurilateral approach in not in keeping with the workings of a multilateral venue like the WTO, and raises serious resource management questions as well.

[2] Full briefing available from www.foe.co.uk/resource/media_briefing/environment_ignored_wto.pdf (PDF)

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust