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WIDE Globalising gender equality and social justice |
WIDE
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WIDE members and international partners |
Report: EU trade policy dismisses social and gender justice and undermines environmental sustainability
Brussels, 21 March
2006 - The trade policy of the European Union is inconsistent
with social justice, gender justice and environmental sustainability, a new report
by Friends of the Earth Europe and Women in Development Europe (WIDE)
said today.
On the eve of a high level European Commission
conference on EU trade policy-making, the two organisations charged that
the EU is concerned only with establishing a trade regime which dismisses
questions of social justice, gender justice, the environment and
sustainable development.
The report analysed the EU position
at the World Trade Organisation's 6th Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong
in December 2005 and in ongoing negotiations.
Alexandra
Wandel, trade expert at Friends of the Earth Europe, said: "The EU
Commission is mistaken when assuming that an uncontrolled increase in
trade and opening markets for natural resources and services in developing
countries yields sustainable development."
"Friends of the Earth
Europe and Women in Development Europe want the EU trade agenda to open
itself up to economic alternatives with the aim of transforming it into a
truly sustainable and just development agenda," she added.
Barbara
Specht, WIDE Information Officer, said: "The current trade negotiations
are undertaken in a very opaque and undemocratic manner, and they serve
mainly the interests of the developed countries. Instead of putting
development at the heart of the WTO as stated in the Doha Declaration of
2001, the EU, the US and others are pushing developing countries to
further liberalise their agriculture, industrial goods and services
sectors."
The new report highlights issues such as the selling-out
of natural resources under the WTO, the importance of people's food
sovereignty, the gender dimension of the trade agenda and
biosafety.
Moreover it addresses WTO negotiations in the areas of
agriculture, non-agricultural market access, services and trade and
environment - taking into consideration the outcome of the ten year review
of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and the Platform of
Action (3), the World Summit on Sustainable Development and the United
Nations' Millennium Development Goals. The report also includes an
assessment of the outcome of the Hong Kong Ministerial meeting from gender
and environmental perspectives.
>>Download the report here. A printed version of the hearing report is available from the WIDE secretariat. Please contact info(at)wide-network.org.
>>Read also the WIDE analysis: A gender perspective on the 6th WTO Ministerial Conference at Hong Kong.
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WIDE Annual Conference 2006
What
'state' are we in? Women's lives, changing states,
expanding markets. The WIDE Annual Conference "What 'state' are we in? women's lives, changing states, expanding markets." will be hosted by KARAT in Warsaw, Poland 1-3 June 2006. Its aim is to initiate a discussion between women from East, North and South on their experience and expectations regarding states and markets with a goal of finding feminist alternatives for the future. The Conference will look critically at the failure of markets to provide economic and social processes that share national wealth and ensure women and men’s well-being. A wide ranging discussion will look at the implications of the bias of macroeconomic and development policies over the last decades in their focus on expanding market-based economic processes, as reflected, for example, in structural adjustment programs in the global South, transition and economic reform in the former state-socialist "East", and welfare state reform/retrenchment efforts in the North. Together participants will look at: What state are we in today? What Markets are we in? What should be changed? What is the best solution for women? What are feminists concerned about today in our different regions? How can we learn together about the intersections of our lives and issues? The conference panels, facilitated debates, workshops and other side events will create a vibrant space where women living in the East, South, and North can debate share and search together for viable alternatives. The conference will feature international experts and within each panels/facilitated debates there will be speakers from East, South and North looking at the issues from specific regional perspective.> The conference will start with a capacity building day, followed by a two-day international conference. (Further information can be found here) |
WIDE
News N°4/06
April/May 2006
WIDE Annual
Conference
WIDE and the
WIDE Annual Conference 2005
Poverty, inequality and insecurity: What answers does feminism have?
24-25 June 2005
Regents
College, London, UK
The WIDE
Annual Conference this year was a special and joyous occasion, for it
marked WIDE’s 20th anniversary. Twenty years ago WIDE was formed on the
eve of the third World Conference on Women held in
Hosted in
London by the UK GAD Network (GADN) and attended by 150 participants from
six continents, the conference was entitled ‘Poverty, inequality, insecurity:
What solutions does feminism have?’ and focused on four subthemes: inequality,
international trade relations, peace and security, and sexual and
reproductive health and rights – all highly contested areas that shape
women’s chances of enjoying and exercising their full human
rights. The
conference used these themes to address the crucial issues for women and
gender equality: rights and power.
The conference was also the occasion for the launch of the WIDE–GADN manifesto. (The Conference Manifesto is also
available in Spanish.)
A full conference report (8 Euro plus postage and packing) can be ordered at barbara(at)wide-network.org.
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Women’s International Coalition for Economic Justice
The Women’s International Coalition for Economic Justice has closed its New York City secretariat and moved its headquarters to Brussels, Belgium. WICEJ will be housed at WIDE, a founding member of the coalition. |
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The EU corporate trade
agenda - "Stop the EU' Corporate Trade Agenda" - this is the slogan of a joint European campaign to expose the anti-development and anti-environment agenda of the EU in the WTO negotiations. The slogan addresses both the Transnational Corporations as the true beneficiaries of trade liberalisation and as influential policy makers in the EU trade policy, but also the EU and its trade agenda, which has a strong bias towards corporate interests. With a focus on the three most relevant and most controversial issues at the end of the Doha Round of WTO negotiations – services, agriculture and NAMA – the new Seattle to Brussels report sheds light on the role of European Transnational corporations and their Brussels based lobby groups but also on the EC that paves the way for their further global expansion. Published by: Seattle to Brussels, Berlin/Brussels, November 2005 To download click here. |
