There is a bizarre disconnect between what governments are saying at home, what populations are demanding, and the statements that governments have issued during the 7th Ministerial Meeting here in Geneva. While in official statements many developing countries have demanded that development be at the centre of the negotiations, the reality is that what is on the table would result in... Read more
Myriam vander Stichele, Shalmali Guttal, Ambassador Nathan Irumba, Etienne Vlok
WHO: Members of Global Our World Is Not for Sale Network (OWINFS); including: (1) Ambassador Nathan Irumba, Southern and Eastern African Trade Information (2) Shalmali Guttal, Focus on Global South (3) Myriam Vander Stichele, Center for Research on International Corporations- SOMO, Europe (4) Etienne Vlok, SACTWU, South African.
WHAT: For the past four years, proponents for WTO expansion have not called another Doha Round negotiating ministerial – despite a WTO requirement that ministerial conferences be held biannually. Why? Because they are afraid of another failure like the Seattle and Cancun Ministerials.
Despite the current global economic, food and climate crisis, the same old Doha Round agenda remains on the table.
Calls continue to grow for WTO Turnaround – a halt to WTO expansion of the Doha Round, and a roll-back of the existing commitments under WTO, particularly those that have brought us to this state of crisis.
We invite you to meet leaders of social movements and civil society organizations from different regions that have come to Geneva to highlight the role that the WTO has played to cause the multiple crises, and provide alternatives to Ministers attending the 7th WTO Ministerial.
PRESS CONTACTS:
Verda Cook: verda.cook@gmail.com and +41 (0) 78 776 0178
Kinda Mohamadieh: kinda.mohamadieh@annd.org and +41 (0) 79 872 8738.
It is now generally accepted that globalization has been a failure in terms of delivering on its triple promise of lifting countries from stagnation, eliminating poverty, and reducing inequality. The current deep global downturn, which is rooted in corporate-driven globalization and financial liberalization and the ideology of neoliberalism that legitimized them, has driven the last nail into... Read more
Partial report of OWINFS Brunch Briefing (*): “WTO: Cause not Solution to the Crisis!! WTO TURNAROUND NOW!” ... Read more
Has the WTO's services agreement contributed to the crisis or is it a tool which can help create a more stable environment for international financial services? Myriam Vander Stichele, TNI Fellow and senior researcher at the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations, and Sergio Marchi, senior fellow at the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, discuss this topic... Read more
We are meeting here to discuss some of the current multilateral, bilateral and bi-regional (or inter-regional) inter-governmental relations and negotiations in which the EU is engaged. This discussion has to be located and the issues evaluated in the context in which the whole world is facing a range of interlinked crises, which must in fact be seen as aspects of a complex multi... Read more
Dot Keet, Ignacio Iruarrizaga Díez
Debate panel
Ms. Dot Keet is originally from Zimbabwe and has worked as a researcher and lecturer in African political economy. She is currently a Research Associate of the Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC) in Cape Town, South Africa and a Transnational Institute Fellow on the Alternative Regionalisms programme.
Mr. Ignacio Iruarrizaga Díez is Deputy Head of the Services and Investment Unit of DG Trade, European Commission. The unit is responsible for the negotiation of trade agreements on services and investment and it handles the multilateral and bilateral trade negotiations in those areas.
Liberalisation and deregulation of services are directly implicated in the global financial and economic crisis.
WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, in a speech to the Global Services Summit on 14 October 2009 in Washington D.C., said: “to speed global economic recovery, we will need to shore up peoples’ faith in an open international trading system. We will need to demonstrate that continued policy and regulatory reform in favour of services trade will be vital to supporting economic recovery”.
In parallel to WTO negotiations, the EU has continued the negotiations to conclude Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP), a key chapter of which is on services liberalisation, including financial services.
In the context of the upcoming Doha Round of WTO Negotiations in Geneva (28 November-2 December 2009) and the ongoing Economic Partnership Agreements negotiations, this debate will present different views on what policy measures are needed in response to the global economic crisis in order to address the developmental needs of the people of the ACP countries.
For registration and information contact:
pablosanchez@tni.org
00 32 (0) 486. 50 79 96
Some Key Points for Member Groups of the Our World Is Not For Sale Network [OWINFS] at the United Nations Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development, June 22-24, 2009. ... Read more
Somebody sent me this "oldie but goodie" they wanted permission to quote. I'd forgotten all about this ten-year old piece but in fact things haven't changed that much. Seattle, as we all know, ended in disarray and in many ways had the welcome effect of launching the "alter-globalisation" movement. Two years later, a few weeks after the atrocity of September 11th, 2001, the WTO semi-annual... Read more
Since the current financial crisis started, none of the governments, experts or media who have called for new regulations for the financial industry have taken into account rules of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) which actually impose extreme financial service deregulation on many WTO member countries. Worse, the heads of the G-20 country governments who met on 15 November 2008 to discuss... Read more
