Links

Memorandum on the need to improve internal transparency and participation in the WTO

(Choike, Mon Jul 21 2003) Ten NGOs have sent a joint memorandum to the World Trade Organization WTO members on The Need to Improve Internal Transparency and Participation in the WTO. The Memo highlights many things wrong with the decision-making system and gives concrete proposals. This issue looms large as the Cancun Ministerial approaches. If not changed, the untransparent process will result in an anti-development outcome in Cancun. The memorandum was prepared by: The Third World Network, Oxfam International, Public Services International, WWF International, The Center for International Environmental Law, Focus on the Global South, The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, The Africa Trade Network, The International Gender and Trade Network, and The Tebtebba International Centre for Indigenous Peoples' Rights.

http://www.choike.org/cgi-bin/choike/links/page.cgi?p=ver_informe&id=1272

(Added: Wed Jul 23 2003   Modified: Tue Aug 15 2006   Hits: 236)

Business rules: who pays the price?: how corporate influence in the WTO impacts people and the environment (PDF)

Friends of the Earth International, 2003. While this report reveals only the tip of the iceberg, it leaves no doubt about the moral bankruptcy of the World Trade Organization (WTO) system. Behind the rhetoric about 'rulesbased trade', 'liberalization' and the 'Doha Development Round', the reality is that the WTO's trade and investment rules are consistently being shaped around the interests of transnational corporations, consolidating their global expansion and removing any remaining obstacles. Through a series of case studies, this publication highlights the powerful influence of corporations on the World Trade Organization (WTO) process. Big business has unparalleled access to trade negotiators, and this has resulted in a set of trade rules and agreements that directly benefit transnational commercial enterprises - often at the expense of local communities and small businesses, as well as future generations and the environment.

http://www.foei.org/publications/pdfs/businessrules.pdf

(Added: Thu Sep 25 2003   Modified: Thu Sep 21 2006   Hits: 447)

Divide and Rule: the EU and US Response to Developing Country Resurgence

ActionAid. July 2004 ActionAid have released a new report that exposes the way rich countries are continuing to bribe, bully and threaten developing countries to get their own way over global trade talks. This report looks at what really happened at the WTO Ministerial in Cancún and how since the collapse of the meeting, the EU and US have tried to split developing country alliances and force their own interests at the expense of poor countries.

http://allafrica.com/sustainable/resources/view/00010269.pdf

(Added: Tue Sep 21 2004   Modified: Tue Aug 15 2006   Hits: 129)

Free trade costs local liberty

This op ed highlights New Zealand's role in furthering the WTO's potential to undermine central and local government. (Dr Russel Norman, New Zealand Herald, 10 July 2006)

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/search/story.cfm?storyid=000B9B99-8970-14B0-B67183027AF10190

(Added: Thu Jul 27 2006   Hits: 213)

Ways to Democratize the Global Economy

A list of ways in which people can work together to reform global trade rules, demand that corporations are accountable to people's needs, build strong and free labor and promote fair and environmentally sustainable alternatives. (Global Exchange)

http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/wto/tenwaystodemocratize.html

(Added: Tue Oct 17 2006   Hits: 192)