Call for international mobilizations in Geneva. STOP the WTO corporate agenda before Hong Kong

With December’s Ministerial Meeting in Hong Kong in view, WTO members are speeding up negotiations to ensure a successful outcome. The collapse of the trade talks in Cancun still in mind, the WTO changed their negotiating strategy. Negotiators will seek to resolve major conflicting issues in Geneva during General Council meetings - thus avoiding the public scrutiny and popular pressures that contributed to previous deadlocks. Decisions would thus be taken in an even more opaque and undemocratic fashion. Civil society must mobilize to counter this strategy!

The July Framework that was agreed upon last year exposes this change in strategy. During the this year’s July General Council, which ended without any substantial deal, the true character of trade talks became once more evident - the current round of talks will be just another round for large corporations, whereas the interests of family farmers around the world, women, workers, the poor and the environment are not taken into account. Given what is at stake in agriculture, services and industrial goods —and the existing power imbalances in the WTO —these developments are of grave concern. Therefore it is imperative that we ensure popular pressure and international attention, on the upcoming General Council meetings in Geneva,.

Social movements and civil society must be present to hold WTO members accountable and ensure that developing countries, the interest of peoples around the world and the environment are not furthered trampled in the stampede of trade liberalization.

In the run up to Hong Kong, all attention is now being put into October’s General Council during which important decisions are expected in all areas. The Ministerial Meeting in Hong Kong, therefore, may become little more than a stocktaking session, rather than a decision taking meeting.

We are therefore calling on social movements and civil society organizations to mobilize for a week of action against the WTO corporate agenda, including:

• An international demonstration in Geneva on 15 October (start 14.00 in front of WTO,

Av. de la Paix);

• An observatory of negotiations, lobbying and symbolic actions from 17 to 21 October in

Geneva.

Before Hong Kong...

STOP the WTO corporate agenda ...in Geneva !

Information: www.omc-wto.org contact: info@omc-wto.org

This Call is issued by the Geneva People’s Alliance :

Action Aid International, UK

Action Populaire Contre la Mondialisation (APCM)

Les Amis du Monde Diplomatique, Suisse

ARCI -Associazione Ricreativa Culturale Italiana

ATALC -Friends of the Earth Latinamerica & Caribbean

Atos-Gn3 -Alliances pour la Triarticulation de l’Organisme Social

attac Austria

attac France

attac Germany / AG Welthandel&WTO

attac Greece

attac Hungary

attac Italia

attac Poland

attac Quebec

attac Romania

attac Spain

attac Sweden

attac Switzerland

attac Vlaanderen

Attractive Visions, Serbia & Montenegro

BanglaPraxis, Dhak, Bangladesh

Berne Declaration, Switzerland

Both Ends, Netherlands

CADTM Belgique

CADTM Suisse

Campagna per la Riforma della Banca Mondiale, Italy

Centre du Commerce International pour le Développement (CECIDE)

CGIL Funzione Pubblica, Italy

CIDSE, Belgium

Collectif d’action contre l’AGCS

Coordination Paysanne Européenne

Development Fund, Norway

Dutch GATS-platform

Ecological Society of Bangladesh

Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA)

Initiative Colibri, Germany

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP)

International Gender and Trade Network (IGTN)

LOKOJ Institute, Bangladesh

Focus on the Global South

Forum National sur la Dette et la Pauvrete de Cote d’Ivoire (FNDP)

Forum Social Lémanique

Friends of the Earth Europe

Friends of the Earth International

Gerechtigkeit jetzt! -Die Welthandelskampagne, Germany

KMPMP (Congress of Worker’s Unitiy), Philippines

Mouvement d’Action Paysanne (MAP), Belgique

Observatori del Deute en la Globalitzaciò, Barcelona

Oxfam International

Public Services International (PSI)

REDES -Friends of the Earth Uruguay

ROBA dell’Altro Mondo fair trade, Italy

Swiss Coalition of Development Organisations

Syndicat Interprofessionnel des Travailleurs/euses (SIT), Geneva

Tradewatch Italy

Transnational Institute, Netherlands

Uniterre

Unité de recherche, de formation et d’information sur la globalisation (URFIG), France

Via Campesina

Volontari nel mondo -FOCSIV, Italy

War on Want

Wemos Foundation, Netherlands

Women in Development Europe (WIDE)

World Economy, Ecology and Development (WEED), Germany

World Development Movement, UK

XminusY Solidarity Fund, Netherlands