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EU's expansion agenda fails in Geneva:
a victory for developing countries and civil society

Brussels/Geneva, 12 February 2004, The European Union's aggressive attempt to open up new markets for its largest transnational corporations, by pushing for business-friendly investment and competition rules to be agreed in the World Trade Organisation, appears to have been dealt the coup de grace . Yesterday the WTO's General Council failed to agree on the re-establishment of any working groups (1) on these topics.

The European Union has been pushing for an investment and competition agreements for many years, in the face of stiff resistance from developing countries and civil society groups around the world, who fear that governments will lose their ability to regulate in favour of citizens and their environment (by channelling foreign investment to key economic sectors, for example, or by supporting local economic development.)

The EU's failure to launch negotiations in the WTO for an investment and competition agreement at previous WTO Ministerial Conferences in Seattle in 1999, in Doha in 2001 and in Cancun 2003 seems to be set in stone. The collapse of the Cancun WTO Ministerials was caused primarily by the EU's insistence on proceeding with these issues, known as the 'Singapore' or 'new' issues, despite repeated objections from developing countries [2]. In 1998, a similar attempt to establish a Multilateral Agreement on Investment in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development collapsed in disarray.

Alexandra Wandel, trade coordinator at FoE Europe / Ronnie Hall, trade coordinator at FOE International said:

"After the MAI, Seattle, Cancun and Geneva, the EU must accept that it's time to change track. Instead of using the WTO negotiations to further its corporate agenda, the EU should focus on the needs of people and their environment. We need trade rules that prioritise development and environmental protection. A first step must be binding rules for corporations, ensuring they take responsibility for their environmental and social impacts.''

Notes:

[1] This means that the WTO working group on trade and investment and working group on trade and competition, originally set up in 1996 to discuss investment and competition issues in the WTO do not exist anymore. The working groups were set to discuss trade, investment and competition issues and the EU made countless attempts to launch negotiations in the WTO since 1999.

[2] Trade negotiations collapsed in Cancun due to disarray over whether to launch negotiations on the so called Singapore issues, investment, competition, government procurement and trade facilitation. See Cancun: WTO trade talks collapse, FoEE bulletin, October 2003 http://www.foeeurope.org/publications/bulletin9.pdf

Contact:

Alexandra Wandel, FoE Europe, tel: + 32 (2) 497 90 80 68
Ronnie Hall, FoE International, tel : +44 1243 602756 or +44 7967 017281

Friends of the Earth Europe campaigns for sustainable and fair societies and for the protection of the environment,
unites more than 30 national organisations with thousands of local groups
and is part of the world's largest grassroots environmental network, Friends of the Earth International.