Watch War on Want's WTO film here »
International trade rules have a massive impact on people in developing countries, whether they be farmers, workers or families just trying to make a living in the context of globalisation. Yet the rules of the global economy have been set up to serve the interests of big business, not people’s needs. That’s why War on Want is at the forefront of the trade justice movement, campaigning to ensure that trade rules put people first.
Our key focus is the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and its current round of trade negotiations, which aim to write the rules of the global economy for the next generation. The Doha Round was launched in 2001 and is now entering its final phase. The WTO needs to reach a deal on the main issues very soon if it is to have any chance of completing the round in the next few years, as it hopes. But the talks are now in crisis, and could well collapse without a deal.
At the root of the problem is a string of broken promises made by the EU and USA. When this round was launched, it was widely billed as the Doha Development Agenda, supposedly designed to deliver a trade deal which would genuinely help the world’s poor. That would include ending all the subsidies which lead to the dumping of EU and US farm produce on markets in the Third World, and rolling back the damaging new agreements brought in by the last round of trade talks.
Yet the promise that the current Doha round of negotiations would focus on a development agenda has proved completely hollow. The EU and US have managed to preserve their agricultural subsidies intact, while proposals to address the problems caused by previous agreements have been sidelined and forgotten.
Instead, both the EU and US have tried to force developing countries to open up their agricultural, industrial and services markets to multinational corporations. War on Want’s research has revealed the nightmare that this will bring workers and their families, including mass bankruptcies, job losses and poverty. Yet the EU under Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson has turned its back on the world’s poor – and the UK government has supported him in doing so.
That’s why the crisis for the WTO is good news. We need a rules-based system for world trade, but it must serve the interests of the poorest and most vulnerable, not lead to their increased marginalisation as the WTO negotiations are now doing. War on Want has joined with millions of campaigners from around the world to call for an end to the current round of WTO talks. Use the email action below to add your voice to ours.
 |  | The Ding Dong in Hong Kong:
The WTO met in Hong Kong in December 2005 to decide the future of international trade - and War on Want was there. | |
 | | Mass Lobby of Parliament:
Over 8,000 people showed up to lobby their MPs for trade justice not free trade, and War on Want was there with them. |
 | | NAMA watch:
Forcing open industrial and manufacturing markets threatens to increase poverty levels through the WTO's non-agricultural market access (NAMA) negotiations. |
 | | Stop EPAs Campaign:
Economic Partnership Agreements - the EU's latest approach to negotiating 'free trade' agreements with the countries of the ACP. |
 | | Trade Justice Movement:
War on Want is an integral part of the Trade Justice movement campaigning for trade justice - not free trade - with the rules weighted to benefit poor people and the environment. |
