WTO talks could make things worse - environmentalists
Date: 02-Nov-01
Country: UK
The environmentalist group said that food and farming policy were now loaded in favour of big farmers and transnational companies, which makes the poor poorer.
"Giving the WTO more power over agriculture could just make matters worse. Food and agriculture should be removed from the WTO altogether," it added.
Anti-globalisation groups have voiced their outrage at proposals for talks on international trade barriers to be presented at the WTO conference in Qatar.
They have said the meeting, which is aimed at launching a new trade round, could collapse if the project was not dropped.
Trade liberalisation talks have been the focus of protests by a broad range of non-governmental organisations and anti-globalisation groups since the last WTO ministerial meeting in Seattle in December 1999 failed to launch a trade round and collapsed amid violent riots.
If agreed the round would aim to slash tariffs on industrial goods, open WTO member countries' markets wider for services like banking, tourism and telecommunications, and cut back farm subsidies in the European Union and the United States.
"The world needs multilateral trading rules designed to serve the interests of farmers, the environment, food, safety and health. These rules should be administered through a reformed and strengthened United Nations," Friends of the Earth added.
It said that thousands of people would call for trade justice at a march this Saturday in central London.
