Knowledge Centre : Trade : World Trade Organisation : Trade Talks in Cancun
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- Cancun Files: WTO Opens to Tragedy and Protest
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(Truthout) By Tom Hayden, AlterNet, Thursday 11 September 2003. CANCUN, Sept. 10. A South Korean farmer, Kun Hai Lee, committed ritual suicide during the WTO's opening day to protest the organization's agricultural policies. Witnesses said Lee stood in front of police lines, declared that "the WTO kills farmers," and then slashed himself to death with a blade. His suicide came on South Korea's Day of the Dead. Few at the demonstration realized what had occurred until later in the day. As word slowly spread of the suicide, supporters of Kun Hai Lee vowed to protest his martyrdom throughout the coming week, possibly starting with a tent city at the barricades where the death occurred. The WTO Secretariat issued a one-paragraph statement of "regret" at the death that they described as resulting from a "self-inflicted" wound. Lee's supporters condemned the WTO for the callous description of his death as self-inflicted, which absolved the organization of any responsibility in his death or the fate of thousands of farmers suffering from its policies.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/091403F.shtml
(Added: Mon Sep 15 2003 Modified: Thu Jun 16 2005 Hits: 105)
- Stumbling Toward Disaster: The Trade Charade
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By Kevin Watkins (IHT) Saturday, August 16, 2003 OXFORD, England: When a man knows he is to be hung," Samuel Johnson famously observed, "it concentrates his mind wonderfully." With just over two weeks to go before the next phase of global trade talks, the prospect of the world's trading system collapsing might have been expected to concentrate the minds of negotiators from the rich countries. Judging by a pact announced on Wednesday, however, American and European political leaders relish nothing more than the prospect of a good hanging.
http://www.iht.com/ihtsearch.php?id=106527&owner=(IHT)&date=20030817142151
(Added: Mon Aug 18 2003 Modified: Tue Aug 15 2006 Hits: 203)
- 'Rich Countries' Urged To Break WTO Deadlock
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"Rich countries have to take the lead in areas now blocking the talks, particularly agriculture," IMF Managing Director Horst Koehler, World Bank President James Wolfensohn and OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) Secretary General Donald Johnston said in a joint statement ahead of a World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in Cancun Sept. 10-14. "Middle income countries have to contribute as well, reducing tariffs that affect not only their own citizens but other developing countries."
http://www.industryweek.com/DailyPage/newsitem.asp?id=5303
(Added: Mon Sep 15 2003 Modified: Thu Jun 16 2005 Hits: 114)
- Bill Rosenburg's Speech on the WTO
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Given during the Alt-WTO conference 5 September 2003, Wellington. Bill Rosenburg of Canterbury University is associated with ARENA.
http://www.arena.org.nz/altwto1.htm
(Added: Thu Sep 11 2003 Modified: Thu Jun 16 2005 Hits: 90)
- Challenging the WTO: Food First
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Food First's webpage on Cancun. Includes daily updates, details of the Ministerial, an emergency appeal to help Mexican peasants and indigenous people get to WTO Cancun, information on agricultural negotiations and WTO impacts in America, fact sheets on human rights, as well as reports on the impacts of trade negotiations on farmers.
(Added: Fri Sep 12 2003 Modified: Thu Jun 16 2005 Hits: 99)
- Choike' Cancun Special Coverge
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Web resource containing information on NGO's involved with the WTO Cancun ministerial. "Choike is a portal dedicated to improving the visibility of the work done by NGOs from the South. It serves as a platform where NGOs can disseminate their work and at the same time enrich it with information from diverse sources, organized in line with the perspective of Southern civil society."
http://www.choike.org/cgi-bin/choike/links/page.cgi?p=ver_indepth&id=1236
(Added: Thu Sep 11 2003 Modified: Thu Jun 16 2005 Hits: 116)
- Don't let big business rule the world
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Key recommendations for the on-going WTO negotiations Friends of the Earth Europe (FoEE), as part of Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) - the world's largest grassroots environmental network - is seriously concerned with the current position of the EU in the on-going WTO negotiations. With a new European Commission and European Parliament in an enlarged European Union, it is time to change course. EU trade policy making should be socially and democratically accountable and above all centred on sustainability.
(Added: Wed Sep 03 2003 Modified: Thu Sep 21 2006 Hits: 105)
- Draft Ministerial Text for WTO Cancun meeting - 18 July 2003
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Text of the agenda proposed by the chairman of the WTO. It was created weeks before the main negotiations in closed meeting of the large infdustrial nations. "The attached Draft Ministerial Text is being circulated by the Chairman of the General Council on his own responsibility, in close cooperation with the Director-General. It is intended as a first draft of an operational text through which Ministers at Cancún would register decisions and give guidance and instructions as appropriate in the negotiations and other aspects of the work programme agreed at Doha. It does not purport to represent agreement in whole or in part, and is without prejudice to any delegation's position on any issue." - from text
http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/free/wto/news/0718cancun_draft.htm
(Added: Thu Sep 11 2003 Modified: Thu Jun 16 2005 Hits: 87)
- Fran O'Sullivan: Swimming with the sharks at Cancun
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The New Zealand Herald 11.09.2003 COMMENT "But it was a decision by the Group of 20 [India, Brazil and China + others] and the Cairns Group of agricultural exporting nations, to which New Zealand belongs, to merge interests that has really changed the balance at this WTO ministerial meeting"
(Added: Thu Sep 11 2003 Modified: Thu Jun 16 2005 Hits: 115)
- Free trade at any price? The World trade Organisation Doha Round
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This booklet is both informative and provocative. It aims to go beyond an exposé to provoke a sense of outrage. It aims to arm New Zealanders in every walk of life - even politicians right to debate and a say in what is done in their names.This booklet invites people to help create a debate about the World Trade Organisation (WTO). In 2003, new negotiations called the 'Doha Round' aim to extend the WTO's vision of global free markets even further. The Labour government says it can't actually tell anyone what its doing because the negotiations are 'confidential' among the governments involved - but it assures them that it is acting in their best interests! As most people do not have enough information about the WTO to challenge what the spin-doctors are saying, ARENA has decided it is time to spell out what the WTO is really about, what's going on in the current Doha Round and what role the NZ government is playing.
http://www.arena.org.nz/tradpric.pdf
(Added: Thu Oct 30 2003 Modified: Tue Aug 15 2006 Hits: 166)
- Free Trade Is War, by Naomi Klein
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The Nation, Sept. 11, 2003. Naomi Klein weaves together themes like water privitisation in South Africa, and free market policies in Chile, to argue that free trade, free markets and the militaristic forces linked to it have violent outcomes for the majority of the world's population.
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030929&s=klein
(Added: Tue Sep 16 2003 Modified: Tue Aug 15 2006 Hits: 312)
- ICFTU says the needs of developing countries must be respected at the WTO
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28/7/2003 Brussels, July 28, 2003 (ICFTU Online): Trade ministers of richer countries should show solidarity with people in the developing world by living up to commitments on development made at the last World Trade Organisation (WTO) Conference two years ago, according to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU). Lack of political will is depriving developing countries of essential medicines, holding up promises to provide them with special treatment on trade, and hurting their agricultural workers.
http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=991218329&Language=EN
(Added: Wed Jul 30 2003 Modified: Tue Aug 15 2006 Hits: 160)
- Jane Kelsey's Cancun Bulletin No. 1
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The symbolism of a World Trade Organisation under siege intensified as the security cordon around the venue for the WTO's fifth ministerial meeting began tightening today.
http://www.arena.org.nz/canjane1.htm
(Added: Thu Sep 11 2003 Modified: Thu Jun 16 2005 Hits: 91)
- Jane Kelsey's Cancun Bulletin No. 2
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More than a thousand campesina crammed into a steaming hot gymnasium today for the first day of the indigenous and farmers forum. There was no mistaking their message to the trade ministers of the US, EU and Cairns Group as they began arriving for the fifth ministerial meeting of the WTO. Standard-issue green scarves proclaimed "taking agriculture out of the WTO". - September 8
http://www.arena.org.nz/canjane.htm
(Added: Thu Sep 11 2003 Modified: Thu Jun 16 2005 Hits: 79)
- Jane Kelsey's Cancun Bulletin No. 3
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Puerto Juarez is the oldest settlement in Cancun. Past the local fishing boats moored on the stunning white beach, you can see the profile of the Hotel Zone where the WTO ministerial meeting is about to begin. The contrast is breathtaking.
http://www.arena.org.nz/canjane3.htm
(Added: Thu Sep 11 2003 Modified: Thu Jun 16 2005 Hits: 74)
- Korean Farmer Dies in Cancun
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Details the tragic death of Kyung Hae Lee, a 56-year old South Korean farmer, who died during protests at the Cancun WTO meeting.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/wto/article/0,2763,1039709,00.html
(Added: Thu Sep 11 2003 Modified: Thu Feb 08 2007 Hits: 83)
- Major Issues from Cancún Paper 1: U.S. Dumping on World Agricultural Markets (PDF)
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The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy published a series of white papers and pamphlets that look closely at all the major issues from Cancún. These background documents help readers understand what happened at the WTO ministerial as well as give insight into some issues on the agenda at the Free Trade Area of the Americas negotiations in Miami (PDF 1.1MB).
(Added: Thu Sep 25 2003 Modified: Thu Jun 16 2005 Hits: 267)
- Major Issues from Cancún Paper 2: World Trade Organization Agreement on Agriculture Basics (PDF)
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The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy published a series of white papers and pamphlets that look closely at all the major issues from Cancún. These background documents help readers understand what happened at the WTO ministerial as well as give insight into some issues on the agenda at the Free Trade Area of the Americas negotiations in Miami (PDF 159Kb).
(Added: Thu Sep 25 2003 Modified: Thu Jun 16 2005 Hits: 111)
- Major Issues from Cancún Paper 4: WTO Decision Making: A Broken Process (PDF)
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The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy published a series of white papers and pamphlets that look closely at all the major issues from Cancún. These background documents help readers understand what happened at the WTO ministerial as well as give insight into some issues on the agenda at the Free Trade Area of the Americas negotiations in Miami (PDF 167Kb)
(Added: Thu Sep 25 2003 Modified: Thu Jun 16 2005 Hits: 88)
- Major Issues from Cancún Paper 5: TRIPs Agreement: Who Owns and Controls Knowledge and Resources? (PDF)
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The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy published a series of white papers and pamphlets that look closely at all the major issues from Cancún. These background documents help readers understand what happened at the WTO ministerial as well as give insight into some issues on the agenda at the Free Trade Area of the Americas negotiations in Miami. (PDF 146Kb)
(Added: Thu Sep 25 2003 Modified: Thu Jun 16 2005 Hits: 95)
- Major Issues from Cancún Paper 6: Water Services under the World Trade Organization (PDF)
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The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy published a series of white papers and pamphlets that look closely at all the major issues from Cancún. These background documents help readers understand what happened at the WTO ministerial as well as give insight into some issues on the agenda at the Free Trade Area of the Americas negotiations in Miami. (PDF 164Kb)
(Added: Thu Sep 25 2003 Modified: Thu Jun 16 2005 Hits: 94)
- Making the Links: A Peoples' Guide to the WTO and the FTAA
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A report by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke, The Council of Canadians. Groups around the world are watching their governments closely; they will constitute a citizen's opposition in Cancun and Miami and will take their message to the world. We hope this trade primer will arm them with the vital information they need on the road to Cancun and Miami.
http://www.canadians.org/display_document.htm?COC_token=:COC_token&id=656&isdoc=1&catid=196
(Added: Wed Jul 30 2003 Modified: Tue Aug 15 2006 Hits: 249)
- Memorandum on the need to improve internal transparency and participation in the WTO (PDF)
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CIEL and other civil society groups launch campaign denouncing the lack of internal transparency in the run up to the WTO's 5th Ministerial Conference in Cancun this September (PDF 48KB)
http://www.ciel.org/Publications/Cancun_21July03_Memo.pdf
(Added: Thu Sep 11 2003 Modified: Thu Jun 16 2005 Hits: 67)
- Neo-Liberal Globalization. Cancun and Beyond: An in-depth report on the World Trade Organization -PDF
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July 2003 - "Since former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher first coined the phrase, we have had the mantra "There Is No Alternative" (to the "free market") rammed down our throats. Alongside proclamations that capitalism had triumphed over communism, neoliberal globalization has been portrayed as evolutionary and inevitable. Indigenous and traditional economies which have operated on a communal nonmonetary basis for millennia, are systematically undermined to make way for homogenized consumer culture and individualism." (PDF 544KB)
http://www.arena.org.nz/nlglob.pdf
(Added: Thu Sep 11 2003 Modified: Thu Jun 16 2005 Hits: 86)
- Neoliberal Globalization: Cancún and Beyond (pdf)
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(APRN) An in-depth report on the World Trade Organisation by Aziz Choudry, 2003.
(Added: Mon Oct 04 2004 Modified: Mon Sep 11 2006 Hits: 223)
