WTO must not force bad trade deal on poor

30 June, 2006

News that the major powers are trying to bypass negotiations in order to force through a trade deal at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has met with an angry response from trade justice campaigners.

Suggestions from early Saturday morning talks in Geneva that more power should be given to WTO Director General Pascal Lamy to fix a deal, in the absence of genuine concessions from the EU and USA, were rejected as wholly inappropriate by UK campaigns group War on Want. The suggestion from former EU Trade Commisioner Lamy earlier this week that a deal might be struck around a