G4 process is undemocratic, No WTO deal in Potsdam! Stop the New Round Coalition - 08.07.2007 13:31
Trade ministers of the G4 countries (the European Union, the United States, Brazil and India) are meeting in Potsdam, Germany, this week try to stitch together a trade deal to which each of them could agree. WTO tradition indicates that if they are successful, they will attempt to present this deal as a fait accompli that other countries must accept if the multilateral trading system is to survive. In practice, this would mean that many smaller developing countries (the majority of the WTO's members), that have been excluded from these negotiations, could be forced into accepting a deal that could wreak havoc on their economies and the environment and undermine their democracies. In particular, the livelihoods of millions of farmers worldwide are at stake. Such a process would be totally untransparent and undemocratic. We demand an immediate stop to the G4 meeting and the start of an open and transparent assessment of the impacts of WTO Agreements on people's livelihoods and the environment. Signatories (in alphabetical order): Action Aid International Africa Europe Faith and Justice Network (International Organization) Alliance of Progressive Labor, Philippines - http://www.apl.org.ph/ Andean Coordination of Indigenous Organizations, Latin America Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND), Lebanon ATTAC Austria ATTAC France ATTAC Hungary ATTAC Japan ATTAC Norway ATTAC Sweden ATTAC Switzerland Austrian Community of Interest for Emancipatory Global Education, Austria Blue Planet Project, Canada Both ENDS, the Netherlands Brazilian Network for the Integration of Peoples (REBRIP), Brazil Camille Chalmers - PAPDA, Haiti Campaign for the Welfare State, Norway Caribbean Assembly of Peoples, Caribbean Center for Human Rights in Tepeyac, Istmo de Tehuantepec, Mexico Center for Encounter and Active Non-Violence, Austria Centre for Indigenous Peoples of Indus, Pakistan Consumer Rights Forum, Pakistan Consumers Association of Penang, Malaysia Ecologists in Action, Spain Economic Justice and Development Organization, Pakistan Focus on the Global South - http://www.focusweb.org/ Foundation for Gaia, UK Friends of the Earth International (International Organization) Friends of the Earth Australia Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland Friends of the Earth Malaysia Global Forest Coalition (International Organization) Global Women March, Peru Global Network Asia (trade union and NGO alliance on globalization). Greenpeace (International Organization) Group on Gender and Economy, Peru Hemispheric Social Alliance, Latin America Holistic Understanding for Justified Research and Action, Pakistan Humanitarian Group for Social Development, Lebanon In Service of Peace and Justice, Paraguay Initiative Colibri, Germany Insan Foundation, Pakistan Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), U.S. Institute for Global Justice, Indonesia International Gender and Trade Network Kilusang Mangingisda (Fisherpeoples Organization), Philippines Korea Labour and Society Institute, Korea Latin American Association of Micro, Small and Médium Enterprises, Mexico Mesa Global, Guatemala Mexican Action Network Against Free Trade (RMALC), Mexico Millennium Solidarity, Switzerland Network of Women Transforming the Economy, Latin America NOAH - Friends of the Earth, Denmark Oakland Institute, USA Pakistan Rural Workers Social Welfare Organization, Pakistan Polaris Institute, Canada Public Services International Québec Federation of Professors, Canada SEATINI Geneva, Swizterland Shout of the Excluded, Latin America Solidarité, France Stop the New Round Coalition, Philippines Transnational Institute Via Campesina, International War on Want, UK Who Owes Who Campaign, Spain WIDE, Europe World Economy, Ecology & Development (WEED), Germany X minus Y Solidarity Fund, the Netherlands Jun 20, 2007 |