Statement by Global Exchange
November 14, 2001

Trade negotiators' inability to meet their goals of dramatically expanding the World Trade Organization's (WTO) reach during the Doha meeting shows that the "free trade" agenda is ultimately doomed to fail. Still trying to repair its image and legitimacy after the collapse of talks in Seattle, the WTO's announcement of a new round of trade talks is a half-baked plan full of holes and vague, sometimes contradictory language.

The announcement of a new round of trade talks is largely a symbolic gesture. The Doha negotiators failed in their efforts to expand the WTO's purview over services--the so-called General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)--having instead to remain with the "built in" agenda. Trade officials just barely agreed to discuss competition and investment rules during the upcoming round of talks, but the language on these issues is tightly curtailed and requires an "explicit consensus" to start talks. Developing countries remain highly suspicious of any new agreements on investment and competitions.

As the contentious Doha meetings showed, the WTO is facing an internal crisis of confidence. The deep fissures between the world's wealthy countries and poor nations will continue to complicate talks during this round of discussion, which is supposed to end in 2005. As the meeting showed, the WTO can either be about promoting commerce as an end in itself or it can be about structuring trade so that it lifts people out of poverty--but the organization cannot do both. The failure to launch a comprehensive new trade round shows that the world's countries remain worlds apart when it comes to development issues.

Locating the meetings in the autocratic monarchy of Qatar put to lie the claim that free trade is about promoting freedom and democracy. But despite the restrictions on protests, citizens around the world managed to make their voices heard. In the week leading up to the Doha meetings, tens of thousands of farmers rallied in India, thousands of HIV-positive Thais protested in Bangkok, and fair trade advocates marched on the office of the US Trade Representative in Washington, DC. These demonstrations of opposition to the WTO, the muddled and last-minute Doha outcome, and the Bush Administration's failure to yet win Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority shows that the free traders are struggling.

Today we renew the call we made in Seattle: Before trade talks go any further, government officials should convene a summit to assess and examine the record of the WTO. Such an assessment, Global Exchange believes, would show that a trade regime managed by corporate interests cannot serve the needs of the world's majority.

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