International Groups Denounce WTO Pact

[G_j]

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0802-01.htm

Published on Monday, August 2, 2004 by OneWorld.net

International Groups Denounce World Trade Pact
by Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON - While negotiators from the United States and the European Union (EU) declared victory in rescuing global trade talks in the early hours on Sunday at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) denounced the results as a sell-out of poor countries and the environment.

"After days of closed-door negotiations, rich countries have delivered a deeply unbalanced text as a take-it-or-leave-it option," said Celine Charveriat, head of Oxfam International's Geneva office. "This puts developing countries in the unfair position of having to accept a bad deal or reject and get blamed by the U.S. and the EU for failure."

The final deal, which was announced at about 2:00 a.m. Sunday morning, appeared to put back on track the Doha Round of international trade negotiations, which was launched by 147 nations in Abu Dhabi at the end of 2001.

The Round, which seeks to liberalize trade in a host of economic sectors, broke down at a ministerial meeting in Cancun last September when a group of poor countries led by Brazil and India demanded that Washington and Brussels commit themselves to sharp reductions in agricultural subsidies that they argued were making it impossible for farmers in poor countries to compete.


..more..

[papau]

1. US Cotton subsidy already ruled illegal not addressed- and no Western

commitment to a date certain for ending the subsidies that are mentioned.

"The commitment to eliminate export subsidies credits is missing any substance as no end-date is mentioned in the text," the Brussels-based group said. "On domestic support for agriculture, language in the framework agreement clearly opens the door for the EU and the U.S. to maintain nearly their entire level of current subsidies and to use these to continue the dumping of agricultural goods in developing-country markets. At the same time, developing countries could be forced to give up import protections used to achieve food sovereignty."

[Armstead]

2. Kick

Despite the election, terra, Iraq and the rest, this is still extremely important.