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Report: EU trade policy dismisses social and gender justice and undermines environmental sustainability
Brussels, 21 March 2006 - The trade policy of the European Union is inconsistent with social justice, gender justice and environmental sustainability, a new report by Friends of the Earth Europe and Women in Development Europe (WIDE) said today.
On the eve of a high level European Commission conference on EU trade policy-making (1), the two organisations charged that the EU is concerned only with establishing a trade regime which dismisses questions of social justice, gender justice, the environment and sustainable development.
The report analysed the EU position at the World Trade Organisation's 6th Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong in December 2005 and in ongoing negotiations. (2)
Alexandra Wandel, trade expert at Friends of the Earth Europe, said: "The EU Commission is mistaken when assuming that an uncontrolled increase in trade and opening markets for natural resources and services in developing countries yields sustainable development."
"Friends of the Earth Europe and Women in Development Europe want the EU trade agenda to open itself up to economic alternatives with the aim of transforming it into a truly sustainable and just development agenda," she added.
Barbara Specht, WIDE Information Officer, said: "The current trade negotiations are undertaken in a very opaque and undemocratic manner, and they serve mainly the interests of the developed countries. Instead of putting development at the heart of the WTO as stated in the Doha Declaration of 2001, the EU, the US and others are pushing developing countries to further liberalise their agriculture, industrial goods and services sectors."
The new report highlights issues such as the selling-out of natural resources under the WTO, the importance of people's food sovereignty, the gender dimension of the trade agenda and biosafety.
Moreover it addresses WTO negotiations in the areas of agriculture, non-agricultural market access, services and trade and environment - taking into consideration the outcome of the ten year review of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and the Platform of Action (3), the World Summit on Sustainable Development and the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals. The report also includes an assessment of the outcome of the Hong Kong Ministerial meeting from gender and environmental perspectives.
Contacts:
* Barbara Specht at barbara@wide-network.org or call +32-2-545.90.74
* Alexandra Wandel at alexandra.wandel@foeeurope.org or call +49-172-748 39 53
Notes:
(1) The EU Directorate General for Trade is holding in Brussels a two-day "Trade Sustainability Impact Assessment Stocktaking Conference" from 21-22 March 2006. NGOs have criticised that despite recent Impact Assessment Studies of the EU Commission, EU trade policy continues to harm gender justice and undermine environmental sustainability.
(2) The report is available for download at http://www.wtoconference.org/report.pdf. The report is intended as a contribution to deepen understanding of what is at stake in the current WTO negotiations in terms of social and gender justice and environmental sustainability.
(3) The ten year review took place at the 49th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, UN headquarters, New York, 28 February - 11 March 2005
