Trade Justice
The New Corporate Trade Attack
International trade rules directly affect billions of people, rich and poor alike, but it is those in developing countries that are on the sharp end. Whether farmers, workers or ordinary families trying to build a better life for themselves, a trade system that is stacked against them ensures that it is incredibly difficult to break out of poverty.
Trade rules govern the whole global economy, and have a major influence over many of the biggest problems facing the world today. From rising food prices to biofuels, from the destruction of the rainforests to the global financial crisis, the way international trade rules are made is key to solving poverty in the long term.
Up to now, War on Want's trade justice campaign has focused on the World Trade Organisation (WTO). This supposedly democratic and immensely powerful institution is rigged against poor countries. Since 1995, when it was set up, the WTO has been dominated by the interests of rich countries. Often these interests have been driven by corporate lobbyists, seeking to secure advantages for their clients at the expense of everyone else.
The result has been a series of agreements that have made life worse for people in scores of developing countries: destroying jobs and driving down working conditions, lowering prices for agricultural products so that farmers fall ever deeper into debt, wiping out tax revenues meant for schools and hospitals, and leading to the privatisation of public services in many countries.
The current WTO round of negotiations, called the 'Doha round' after the city in Qatar where it was launched in 2001, is supposed to be the 'development round'. The agreement was that the interests of poor countries would come first, in an attempt to turn the disastrous world trade system around. It is a damning indictment of rich countries that they have been totally incapable of letting go of their selfish interests. Now the cries of resistance from poor countries, already growing during the last round of talks, has become a roar. The 'development round' is on the brink of collapse as poor countries refuse to be bullied any more. The whole system of multilateral trade rules is tottering.
If at first you don’t succeed…
In the face of this resistance, the European Union and other countries have begun to look for other ways to get what they want. They have come up with a strategy to negotiate 'bilateral' deals on a one-to-one basis, so they can more effectively bully poor countries into accepting terms that will only increase poverty for many while benefiting the elites.
This strategy, driven by the demands of European companies to get access to new markets around the world, is called the 'Global Europe' strategy. As Peter Mandelson, the EU Trade Commissioner has said, the aim is to ensure "that competitive European companies, supported by the right internal policies, must be enabled to gain access to, and to operate securely in, world markets."
These deals are going ahead even now, but with them is growing a new European and worldwide resistance to the corporate trade agenda. War on Want is playing a leading role in this movement, together with our partners and activists from dozens of countries that have shown their opposition through words, letters and demonstrations. We need you to join us in the fight against these unfair and disastrous deals.
 |  | Take Action - Stop Europe's damaging trade deals: Join the growing resistance around the world and take action to change the way Europe trades. Email EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso and demand that he stop Europe’s destructive trade deals. |
 | | Trade and the Food Crisis: Free trade lies at the root of the global food crisis - find out why. |
 | | What is Global Europe and what does it mean? [PDF] Read our short paper on the EU's new trade strategy and what it means for Europe and the developing world. |
 | | UP Front: Rough Trade This issue of our Up Front magazine exposes how rich countries dominate international trade talks, demanding more and more concessions from poorer and less powerful states. |
 | | Stop EPAs Campaign: Economic Partnership Agreements - the EU's latest approach to negotiating 'free trade' agreements with the countries of the ACP. |
 | | Seattle to Brussels network: The Seattle to Brussels network brings together civil society organisations and grassroots movements from across Europe to campaign against the EU's corporate trade agenda. |
 | | Trade Justice Movement: War on Want is a leading player in the Trade Justice Movement campaigning for trade justice - not free trade - with the rules weighted to benefit poor people and the environment. |
| This campaign has been mounted with the financial assistance of the European Union. The contents of the campaign and all documents produced under it are the sole responsibility of War on Want and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union. |
