Not in our name

A coalition of over 70 European organisations demonstrated its opposition to the EU’s trade policy through an open letter to Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and member states’ governments published as an advertisement in the Financial Times on 1 June.

The organisations paid for a large advert in the Financial Times in order to highlight the threat from the EU’s trade policy to development, jobs and the environment. The open letter – entitled ‘Not in Our Name’ – stresses that Mandelson does not enjoy the support of civil society in the member states of the EU, and that he has no legitimacy in pursuing the EU’s anti-development agenda any further.

John Hilary, Director of Campaigns and Policy at War on Want, said: “The EU’s aggressive trade agenda may delight the corporate lobbyists who swarm around Brussels, but it is deeply unpopular with the people of Europe. We want a trade deal which meets the needs of the most vulnerable and protects the environment. Peter Mandelson and his EU colleagues have betrayed the world’s poor.”

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is fast approaching the deadline it has set itself to conclude the Doha Round of trade talks. While the end of July is the official target for agreeing a deal, government delegations are currently in the middle of a six-week period of intensive negotiation which is seen as the last chance for a consensus. New interventions from the EU and USA have soured relations recently in both the agricultural and industrial negotiations, with the effect of making a deal more remote.