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Traidcraft's response to the WTO Ministerial Meeting
The first WTO meeting of trade ministers in four years has again failed to address the needs of developing countries.
The WTO Ministerial Meeting of 30 November - 2 December 2009 was billed as an opportunity to reassess the role of the WTO in the current global economic environment.
Yet there has been no meaningful reassessment of the free trade model of which the WTO is a key driver, despite the role of unregulated and liberalised trade in the food, climate and economic crises.
Instead ministers voiced support for a "business as usual" approach by calling for a speedy conclusion of the Doha Round by 2010.
Simmering underneath these long repeated calls for a conclusion to the Round there is wide discontent and fatigue from many developing countries about the failure of the Doha talks to address key issues, such as securing safeguards to protect their small-scale agriculture.
As Hanim Lutfiyah from Third World Network, Indonesia explained, "Agriculture and food are human rights and not to be considered as a trade commodity; they are the foundations of the livelihoods and sustainability of millions of people around the world and they should be out of the WTO."
Eight years after the negotiations were launched, the scope for development issues to be addressed looks more remote than ever, as powerful economies continue to push their own interests.
During the ministerial there has been active campaigning and lobbying by a large global network of farmers groups, civil society organisations and social movements.
Traidcraft supports the global call from these groups to: - immediately halt all negotiations on the Doha Round;
- conduct comprehensive development audits of the impacts of WTO trade on local and national economies;
- in collaboration with national constituencies, develop new trade rules that will ensure food, financial, economic, climate and environmental security.
