WTO reform needed as trade ministers meet next week
“The WTO needs structural reform to deliver pro-poor trade agreements, involving greater inclusion of developing countries."
Media contacts: Sarah Gillam on + 44 7738 884014 and in Geneva - Aftab Alam on +41 7971 21584.
News hook: Tenth anniversary of the collapse of the WTO talks in Seattle – 28 November 09 – PHOTO OPP - demonstration at Place Neuve, Geneva – 1400 hours.
Friday November 27: Geneva - Reform of the World Trade Organisation is urgently needed if it is to remain relevant today, warns ActionAid, as demonstrators in Geneva tomorrow mark the tenth anniversary of the collapse of the WTO talks in Seattle.
“The WTO needs structural reform to deliver pro-poor trade agreements, involving greater inclusion of developing countries and putting checks in place on transnational corporate interests," said Aftab Alam, ActionAid’s head of trade and corporates as trade ministers meet for the first time in four years in Geneva next week.
“Trade liberalisation has been the major cause of the food crisis in developing countries,” said Alam. “Yet the WTO is still pushing the same unjust trade policies and as a result, over one billion people – a sixth of humanity - don’t have enough to eat,” he said.
There is consensus that greater food production by smallholder farmers in poor countries is one of the best ways to ensure national food security.
However, any new agriculture agreement based on the current WTO framework is likely to play havoc with smallholder farmers because the EU and US would continue trade distorting farm subsidies while poor farmers in developing countries have no protection against them.
ActionAid is calling for an independent assessment of the existing Doha framework on agriculture and industrialisation – in the context of hunger and job losses.