EU/WT0/NG0: A COALITION OF NON-GOVERNMENTAL ASSOCIATIONS ASKS FOR A TOTAL REFORM OF WTO AND ITS RADICAL REDUCTION OF POWER
Brussels, 13/09/2000 (Agence Europe) On the occasion of the United
Nations
Millennium Summit, a coalition of citizens nongovernmental
organisations
published a statement eloquently entitled "WTO: Shrink or Sink!",
calling
for a more equitable, sustainable and responsible international
trading
system. The current system "has led to extreme inequalities in the
distribution of wealth and contributed to environmental destruction
across
the planeC, claim the 650 NG0s, mouthpiece for civil society in 77
countries.
"We believe it crucial to seize the opportunity to alter course and
develop
an alternative, sustainable and equitable type of trade, under
citizens'
control, the coalition declares, identifying, as first stage in the
process. rolling back the power and authorily of the WTO. It is
urgent, it
continues, to protect cultural, biological, social and economic
diversities; gradually to implement policies that play in favour of
local
commerce and trade; guarantee universally recognised economic, social
and
cultural rights; draw up new rules, based on the democratic control
of
resources, the respect of ecosystems, equality, cooperation and the
precautionary principle.
To that end, the NG0s call on their respective governments to: I)
refrain
from launching a new round of negotiations and to extends the WTO's
"prerogatives" to the fields of investment, competition policy,
public
procurement, biotechnologies, further tariff cuts and electronic
commerce;
ii) not to implement WTO agreements to certain essential areas like
food,
water, public services, health, personal security, and the
preservation of
living species; iii) repeal the general agreement on the trade in
services
(AGCS), given the "harmful" consequences of the principle of gradual
liberalisation for foreign investments; iv) extract intellectual
property
from the WTO; v) prohibit the patentability of live beings in all its
forms; vi) give priority to the right of people to feed themselves;
vii)
recgonise and extend the right of third world countries to a special
and
differentiated treatment; viii) give priority to social and
environmental
rights; ix) democratise the decisionmaking process; x) say no to the
"single tribuna" that is the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) of the
Geneva
institution that "operates in secret, according to antidemocratic
procedures (and ) usurps the legislative and regulatory role of
sovereign
States and territorial authorities".
The "radical change of course" that NG0s are calling for also goes
for the
International Labour Organisation (ILO), the World Bank, regional
development banks, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), whereas tax
havens, flags of convenience and "other" legal fictions that enable
transnational firms to shirk their legal and tax obligations and
escape all
controls" "must go".
19/09/2000