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Final EU offer for global trade talks: Serving big business not livelihoods and the environment
(Brussels/Geneva, 29 October 2005) Following the publishing of a final 'EU WTO offer' yesterday, Friends of the Earth Europe has warned that the EU position is at the detriment of livelihoods and the environment and significantly increases the possibility of trade negotiations to collapse in the near future. The offer was made in light of stalled trade negotiations in Geneva and in the run up to the upcoming WTO Ministerial Conference in HongKong (1).
The ten page document makes little new offers on agriculture: it fails to name an end date for the elimination of export subsidies, exempts European sensitive products from steep tariff cuts and does not refer to exemptions for sensitive products and special safeguard measures that many developing countries demand.
Instead, the limited offer is made conditional on very radical market opening in non-agricultural products and services sectors, especially from developing countries.
On non-agricultural market access (NAMA), which includes industrial goods, forestry, fisheries and mining, the EU demands that developing countries (2) slash their tariffs line per line to very low levels. As a result of the EU position, developing countries could face further deindustrialisation, therefore accelerating unemployment and poverty and forcing countries to rely more heavily on unsustainable and harmful exports of natural resources. Campaigners believe the talks will also threaten the lives and livelihoods of thousands of people in the developing world who depend on the natural environment for their survival.
In services the EU demands that developing countries would liberalise almost 60% of their services, including many environmentally and socially sensitive sectors. Friends of the Earth Europe believes these negotiations pose a threat to the ability of countries to regulate basic services in the pursuit of social, environmental and development goals. The EU is ignoring civil society calls to exempt essential services, such as water and energy.
Alexandra Wandel, trade programme coordinator at FoEE said:
'The EU proposal is outrageous and serves big business rather than people and the environment. The EU must stop making conditional offers and refrain from forcing liberalisation of natural resources, manufactured goods and essential services on developing countries. Instead, the EU must finally and unconditionally stop subsidised dumping that hurts farmers and livelihoods around the world and ensure food security and sustainable agriculture instead.'
For further information:
Alexandra Wandel, FoEE, tel: +49 172 748 39 53
Notes:
(1) The EU offer was made following intense pressure from WTO members, including the US, Brazil, France as well as the WTO director general Lamy on the EU's current stance on agricultural trade. The 6^th WTO Ministerial Conference is supposed to be held from 13-18 December 2005 in HongKong. The offer is available at http://europa.eu.int/comm/trade/issues/newround/doha_da/offerdda_en.pdf Mandelson, US trade representative Portman and top trade officials from Brazil, India, and Australia held a video conference yesterday to discuss the EU's plan. Leading trade ministers from around the world said yesterday the EU offer won't be enough to keep the talks from collapsing. At the last WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancun, the EU's insistence to include market opening in controversial issues- investment, competition, government procurement and trade facilitation - until the final hour led to the negotiations to falter. Informal sources from France have indicated that they intend to use an EU foreign ministers council on November 7 to demand changes from the EU position. Chirac had warned at the EU summit that he would veto a deal that would go further than the agreed CAP reform.
(2) The EU claims that this would only apply to the larger "emerging" developing countries, but in fact the proposed reduction formula will apply to most developing countries, including one third of the vulnerable ACP countries (like Papua, Fiji, Belize, Guyana, Gabon, Swaziland, Barbados.). See media release of 11.11.11, 29 October, marc.maes@11.be
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.
