Basics: What Exactly is Global Trade?
Global trade refers to the act of buying and selling goods and services between countries. Because "globalisation" has made the world a much smaller place, these goods and services can travel further and faster so that – for instance – products from all over the world can be found at your corner shop. This can be anything from fruits and vegetables, to cars, banking services, clothing, and bottled water. The scale and pace of this kind of trade has only increased over time, and has become a very powerful tool. International trade is considered a prime driver of how well a country develops, and affects very much how well the economies of different countries are doing.
Basics: Why is the WTO a Problem?
The WTO - since it came into being in 1995 - has made the promotion of free trade for the gain of private interests the ultimate goal, over and above all other social, public and environmental objectives. The system is fatally flawed: a properly
functioning trade system should set the conditions for peace, security and sustainability. Instead, the WTO sees the promotion of trade as the key goal. For instance, the Doha trade talks, despite being labeled a development round, has failed to improve significantly and to take seriously the need to give priority to sustainable development and environmental policy. Issues that are most important to poorer countries have continually been stalled, with no progress in negotiations. This is creating a crisis of legitimacy for the WTO.
Basics: How does the WTO affect you, and why should you care about it?
Since the 1990s, and in particular since the creation of the WTO, international environmental agreements have been under threat from the international trading regime. Increasingly, trade rules and practices under the WTO have been used to undermine environmental standards, and human health and well-being.
Greenpeace opposes the current form of globalisation that is increasing corporate power. Free trade at all costs is also leading to the overuse of natural resources, more pollution as we produce and consume more, and greater inequities both among and within countries.
This document explains the role of the WTO in these processes, the reasons why Greenpeace is engaging in this debate, and the recommendations we set out for safe, fair, global trade.
Greenpeace Position Paper for the 5th Ministerial Conference of the WTO
Greenpeace positions on issues coming to the table at the Cancun meeting of the WTO, including Multilateral Environmental Agreements, WTO and Agriculture, GATS, TRIPS, and the CBD.
Plus Greenpeace's recommendations for an alternative sustainable trade
system.
Questions and Answers about the 5th Ministerial Meeting of the WTO in Cancun, Mexico
The Cancun WTO meeting marks the first time that environmental issues are directly on the agenda of a WTO Ministerial conference. There is a deep concern that the WTO mandate to discuss the relationship between trade rules and multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) could lead to a disastrous result. Some countries have in the past tried to subordinate environmental regulations to a corporate free trade agenda, which would destroy a good deal of the progress and commitments made over the past decade on environmental issues.
The WTO Unmasked, Uncensored, Uncut: What It Is, and Why You Should Care About Global Trade Rules
Since the 1990s, and in particular since the creation of the WTO, international environmental agreements have been under threat from the international trading regime. Increasingly, trade rules and practices under the WTO have been used to undermine environmental standards, and human health and well-being. Greenpeace opposes the current form of globalisation that is increasing corporate power. Free trade at all costs is also leading to the overuse of natural resources, more pollution as we produce and consume more, and greater inequities both among and within countries. This document explains the role of the WTO in these processes, the reasons why Greenpeace is engaging in this debate, and the recommendations we set out for safe, fair, global trade.
The US War on Biosafety - Renewed Aggression by a Rogue State
On May 13, 2003 the US government filed a formal complaint in the World Trade Organization (WTO) against the European Union's de facto moratorium on genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The WTO challenge was launched despite the fact that the moratorium was due to be lifted within months, indicating that US aggressiveness over GMOs is aimed at the comprehensive labeling and traceability legislation that is expected to replace the moratorium. Even more significant is the US attempt to link the EU's GMO restrictions to growing resistance among developing countries to genetically engineered (GE) crop.
The future of farming: Industrial Agriculture and the Growth of GM is adding to the problem of world hunger
Not since the hunger crisis of 1984 in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa has the issue of "feeding the hungry" been so prominent in the global news agenda. In the year between the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg and the WTO Ministerial Meeting in Cancun, the already overblown rhetoric claiming that Genetic Engineering (GE) would solve the problem of world hunger has reached even more outrageous proportions. This is particularly true in the United States. Most parts of the US Government, from Congressional legislation on aid to Africa, to the US Trade Representative, to President Bush himself addressing the graduating class of the US Coast Guard Academy have acted as enthusiastic cheerleaders for the GM industry. Yet despite the enthusiasm for high tech solutions to the problems of world hunger, the fundamental truth about food and hunger remains unacknowledged by the GM advocates: people go hungry because they are poor, powerless, both or have no land upon which to grow food. Genetic engineering and GM crops will do nothing to solve these problems, and show every likelihood of making them worse.
