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Trade justice and green groups welcome WTO failure
Paris (AFP) July 30, 2008 Anti-globalisation lobby groups and environmental charities united Wednesday in welcoming the collapse of the WTO talks in Geneva, with Greenpeace calling it "no loss." Negotiators gave up on a deal late Tuesday night after nine-days of fraught talks -- after nearly seven years of seeking a deal in the so-called "Doha" round of liberalising global trade subsidies and tariffs. "It's a good thing that there was no agreement," said Daniel Mittler, political advisor at Greenpeace International. "What was on the table was unacceptable, therefore it's no loss that negotiations have failed," he added, saying it would be "disastrous" to liberalise sectors such as fisheries, forestry and electrical waste products, as had been mooted. "What these sectors need is proper regulation," he added. A spokesman for Oxfam said the world's poorest countries "were right" to "defend their smallest farmers and ensure food security." The US group Public Citizen -- founded by campaigner and presidential candidate Ralph Nader -- went further. The director of their Global Trade Watch division, Lori Wallach, said: "Thank God no deal was reached, because the proposal under consideration would have exacerbated the serious economic, food security and social problems now rocking numerous countries." "The moldering corpse of the Doha-WTO expansion round should have been buried years ago. Hopefully after this latest rejection of the Doha agenda, countries will move on to a new agenda focused on fixing the existing WTO rules," she said. ATTAC, an international anti-globalisation network, said the failure of the talks provided an opportunity to "propose other rules to govern commerce, respect the needs of all countries and workers in the world, as well as the ecological balance of the world." Delegates in Geneva had struggled for nine days to reach consensus on subsidy levels and import tariffs for a new deal under the WTO's Doha Round, which has foundered repeatedly since it was launched seven years ago. Optimism peaked at the weekend over a package of proposals by the World Trade Organization's Director-General Pascal Lamy, but talks finally crashed without a deal on Tuesday night. Related Links Global Trade News
WTO failure bodes ill for climate change: delegates
Geneva (AFP) July 29, 2008The failure of key powers to agree a new pact on global trade does not bode well for international cooperation in other areas such as climate change, top delegates warned Tuesday. |
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