Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-01-13-Speech-2-068"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20040113.4.2-068"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, Commissioners, ladies and gentlemen, the WTO conference in Cancún having been a failure, the December meeting of the WTO’s council in Geneva was a non-event, thus, once again, demonstrating that the WTO is in crisis and that the trade policies it practises are no longer sustainable. Further evidence of this is provided by the growing resistance to WTO trade policy on the part of the international social movement.
The Commission plays a decisive part in the WTO’s current trade policy. Its tactical approach shows that what really matters to it is not development policy and global fair trade, but only free trade. You asked whether my group would give you a mandate to do the things you have described. To that I can only say that we will not. What would we want to give you a mandate for?
For a start, it is high time that we comply with the demands of many developing countries and proceed with an evaluation of what the WTO’s policies have achieved to date.
Secondly, agricultural export subsidies, which are ruining millions of farmers in the countries of the South, must be done away with once and for all. Instead of burying developing countries with European agricultural produce at prices that amount to dumping the stuff, the European Union must help these countries to develop sound internal markets and regional economic activity.
Thirdly, the GATS negotiations, which will lead to massive rounds of liberalisation in areas of general-interest service provision that have so far been spared them, must be halted. This is another instance in which, instead of signalling the beginning of new rounds of liberalisation, the Commission would do better to give more attention to the evaluation of what has been achieved so far. I will give you a prediction: there will be little on the assets side of the balance sheet where quality, security of provision or price stability are concerned.
Fourthly, there is no need to make changes to what we call the Singapore issues; they simply need to be swept away. Rather than endlessly extending the WTO’s competences and adding new topics for negotiation to the agenda, the outstanding tasks on the development agenda have to be dealt with. The WTO’s work must, in particular, get back to focusing on such horizontal tasks as sustainable development and public health.
Fifthly, we need to subject to scrutiny the WTO’s structures and the way it works. We call for it to become democratic, with transparency in all negotiations, for all its member states to be treated as equals, and for the procedure for settling disputes to be revised. In particular, we call for the WTO to be a party to the international treaties of the UN and the ILO."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples