U.S., EU Sink WTO Meeting in Cancun

July 6, 2010

The Fifth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization has failed to reach an agreement today. This failure is the "expected" end of a trade system ruled by the World Trade Organization with the single minded objective of trade liberalization. Greenpeace urges governments to rapidly convene an international conference with the mandate to provide the basis for the creation of an alternative trade system.

The Fifth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization
has

failed to reach an agreement today. This failure is the
ìexpected” end of a

trade system ruled by the World Trade Organization with the
single minded

objective of trade liberalization. Greenpeace urges governments
to rapidly

convene an international conference with the mandate to provide
the basis

for the creation of an alternative trade system.

The WTO’s failure

in Cancun to engage developing nations in greater trade
liberalization

confirms the commonly shared diagnosis on this organization:

  • An Internal Crisis of Legitimacy: the permanent lack of
    transparency and democracy ultimately ended this meeting. For the
    first time, a strong movement of resistance balanced the usual
    arm-twisting by rich countries, with developing countries standing
    together as a block to refuse dumped trade and the expansion of a
    WTO mandate on new issues. Reinforcing this resistance, hundreds of
    non-governmental organizations denounced the U.S. and EU push to
    coerce WTO members into ill-fated negotiations.
  • External Crisis: The WTO 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 Cancun trade
    talks have clearly failed to take seriously the need to give
    priority to sustainable development and environmental protection.
    The negotiations on issues that are most important to poorer
    countries have continually been stalled, with little progress in
    sight.

Greenpeace calls on governments to take the

unique opportunity of these crises to create an alternative
trade system.

Greenpeace is in favor of a multilateral, rules-based system,
but one that

has sustainable development and social rights as its core
principles. The

global community must actively end the policies that promote the
destruction

of ecosystems and human well-being. Therefore, Greenpeace urges
the global

community:

  • To conduct a thorough assessment of the rules governing the
    international trade system in order to reconfigure this system
    towards achieving sustainable development.
  • To convene an international conference with the mandate of
    creating the conditions and modalities for an alternative trade
    system. Such a conference should take place in a neutral forum,
    preferably the UN, which is better suited to address social
    well-being, environmental protection and economic development in a
    balanced fashion.

We Need Your Voice. Join Us!

Want to learn more about tax-deductible giving, donating stock and estate planning?

Visit Greenpeace Fund, a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) charitable entity created to increase public awareness and understanding of environmental issues through research, the media and educational programs.