WTO talks break down - time for a new approach, says NUPGE

“The myth that this was a ‘development round’ aimed at helping the world’s poorest nations has finally collapsed. These WTO talks were really about more of the same – free trade instead of fair trade. Empty promises based on empty rhetoric – the talks did not deserve to succeed.” Larry Brown

Geneva - In the aftermath of the breakdown of recent world trade talks, representatives of the world's trade union movement and civil society organizations are wondering if, finally, World Trade Organization (WTO) members will adopt a new approach to international trade - one that puts the interests of people first.

Larry Brown, national secretary-treasurer of the 340,000-member National Union of Public and General Employees, says the time has come to change direction.

"What has been tried so far has been a failure," he says.

"More inequality in wealth, undemocratic backroom dealings, strong arm tactics by the world's powerful nations – these have been the norm for the WTO. It's time to completely change direction and recognize that freer trade is not the same thing as fairer trade. It’s time to build in democracy and reality, and drop the ideological rhetoric. We know that free trade doesn’t deliver on it’s promises. Let's finally move on to negotiating a fair trade regime that actually benefits the peoples of the world."

This sentiment was echoed by Carin Smaller, director of Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy's Geneva Office:

“It is time to confront the limitations of the current model and turn toward devising multilateral trade rules focused on improving people’s livelihoods, increasing employment and providing the space for poor countries to develop their economies," Smaller said.

“WTO members can no longer pretend that this new evidence does not exist. We know a lot more than we did 10 years ago when the WTO began. People will no longer accept an outcome that will continue to devastate rural communities and undermine access to decent working conditions.”

G8 meeting had breathed new life into flailing talks

With the ongoing dispute between the developed and developing world over trade in agriculture, observers speculated that the current round of negotiations, the so-called Doha Round, was on the ropes.

WTO director-general Pascal Lamy was given a mandate to do everything he could to find a deal. At the recent G8 meeting it looked as if many of the world's most powerful countries were going to make concessions in order to break the impasse.

"This was a quite dangerous development," said Brown. "The 'get a deal at all costs' mentality could have resulted in an agreement being reached that is even worse than what we already have. It could also have resulted in a renewed push on the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). No agreement is much better than a bad agreement."

This past weekend Lamy called a meeting of ministers from Australia, Brazil, the EU, India, Japan and the U.S., the G6, at the U.S. Embassy in Geneva. After 14 hours, talks broke down with trade negotiators blaming each other for the failure to reach a deal.

Round suspended

Lamy has now decided to suspend the Doha Round and no one knows when talks will resume. Kamal Nath, India's trade minister, speculated it could take "anywhere from months to years" for negotiations to resume.

Already well past their original 2004 deadline, the negotiations are also faced with the end of the special authority that has been granted to U.S. President George Bush to negotiate trade deals (called the Fast Track process). After this authority passes it will be harder to attain Congressional approval. NUPGE