For Immediate Release
Collapse of the WTO Doha negotiations:
Turning point for developing a
multilateral trading system based on women's
rights and sustainable
development.Brussels, 25 July 2006:
Yesterday's indefinite suspension of the WTO Doha
negotiations offers a
unique opportunity to review and reconsider the
multilateral trading system
as a whole, and to start with a new approach to
a global trading system that
will promote social and gender justice, women's
empowerment and environmental
sustainability.
After a series of missed deadlines and despite the call
of the G8 leaders
last week in St Petersburg for a breakthrough in the
negotiations, trade
negotiators of the G6 (EU, U.S., Japan, Brazil, India and
Australia)
yesterday finally acknowledged that the gaps between key players
remain too
wide to unlock the stalled negotiations. The current deadlock was
caused by
developed countries, mainly the U.S., who was not willing or able
to come up
with steeper cuts in US farm subsides.
"The collapse of the
Doha negotiations creates a momentum to review the past
negotiations and
analyse the flaws in the WTO system in its entirety. The
current neoliberal
approach to the multilateral trading system subordinates
the needs of women
and men in developing countries to corporate-driven
interests," stated
Barbara Specht, WIDE Information Officer.
"The bias of the Doha
negotiations to serves private interests of the
biggest corporations instead
of benefiting the majority of the world's
people, mobilised public opposition
in developing and developed countries
all around the world. Recent World Bank
[1] and other studies such as the
Carnegie Endowment [2] highlighted the fact
that the current trade
liberalisation agenda is not working for the majority
of women and men,
particularly those living in impoverished developing
countries, and that
especially women 'tend to be among the most vulnerable to
adverse impacts'
[3]. Trade can be a medium of development, but trade
liberalisation is not a
panacea to development, poverty eradication and
gender equality," Barbara
Specht concluded.
"The time has come to
start with a new approach to a multilateral trading
systems that will
genuinely promote fair, gender just and sustainable
societies that benefit
all women and men. For this, international trade
policy must be constrained
and bound by existing international agreements
that promote human rights and
women's rights, ecological sustainability,
human dignity and must aim to end
poverty and promote well-being. Trade
policies can no longer be dictated by
the interests of big corporations. Any
further WTO negotiations should not
undermine governments' commitments to
implement the Beijing Declaration and
Platform for Action agreed at the
Fourth World Conference on Women or the
realisation of gender equality and
women's human rights as enshrined in the
Convention of the Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
(CEDAW)."
[End]
For further information, please contact
Barbara
Specht at
barbara@wide-network.org or call
+32-2-545.90.74
------------------------------
[1] A series of devastating
reports on the potential outcomes of the Doha
Round were published by the
World Bank, the UN, and several think tanks
including
"Agricultural Trade
Reform and the Doha Development Agenda", Kym Anderson
and Will Martin et. al.
World Bank Report, Nov.1, 2005
[2]"Winners and Losers: Impact of the Doha
Round on Developing Countries",
Sandra Polaski, Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, Washington DC,
2006
[3] "Global Overview Trade
Sustainability Assessment of the Doha Development
Agenda" from the EU, final
draft report
-----------------------------------------
Barbara
Specht
Information and Advocacy Officer
WIDE