End the Pandemic!
TRIPS Waiver Now!
Global Call to Action: WTO Waiver Now to End the Pandemic!
The global health community, civil society around the world, legislators, international agencies, former heads of state, and over 100 WTO members support the waiver on intellectual property rules on COVID-19 related treatments, diagnostics, and vaccines to end the pandemic. The TRIPS waiver can be agreed at any General Council meeting and does NOT require a Ministerial. This is the ONLY agenda that WTO Members should be focusing on at this time.
Quotes and photos from the 2021-11-30 press conference “No profit on covid”
more on ending the pandemic / TRIPS waiver now…
Sham “Walker Process”
Having refused for over a year to agree to the waiver that would resolve the pandemic, trade negotiators from the EU, Switzerland, Canada, the UK, and a few other countries - representing the interests of Big Pharma over their own citizens and global public health - have invented a diversionary tactic called the “Walker Process.” Allegedly a “WTO Response to the Covid-19,” this process is designed to try to save the WTO from its increasing irrelevance and illegitimacy, by drawing attention away from the WTO’s failure to remove the barriers of its Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rules (TRIPS) agreement to resolving the pandemic.Open letter to WTO Director General and all WTO Members Against the Sham “Walker Process” and in Favor of the TRIPS Waiver: English, Arabic
Quotes from Civil Society on the so-called Walker Process
US CSO Letter to Biden on TRIPS Waiver and MC12
WHAT’S COOKING FOR MC12? Two processes that could reshape the WTO in the interest of the most powerful: English, Spanish
12th Ministerial Conference
The 12th Ministerial Conference of the WTOUpdate: MC12 has been postponed.
Unbelievably, the institution whose rules enforce vaccine apartheid, attempted to have a meeting under conditions of vaccine apartheid, without having first resolved that apartheid by agreeing to the TRIPS waiver. Even though the decision to hold a Ministerial when some Ministers are unable to attend would ensure that any decisions taken in this context lack any pretence of legitimacy.
Open letter to WTO Director General and all WTO Members Against the Sham "Walker Process" and in Favor of the TRIPS Waiver: English, Arabic
Letter to WTO Members: Postpone the 12th Ministerial - TRIPS Waiver Now! English, Spanish, French, media release.
Global Civil Society Calls for a WTO Turnaround: New Multilateral Trade Rules for People-Centered Shared Prosperity and Sustainable Development (2021): English, Spanish, French.
Over 200 organizations from 67 countries say: “Fundamentally transform the WTO: The WTO’s own policies have caused its existential crisis, which the COVID-19 crisis only amplified”: English, Spanish, French.
Fisheries
WTO members are working to finalize new disciplines on Fisheries Subsidies at MC12. However, many members, abetted by the WTO Director-General, are trying to ensure that these exclude development considerations which are part of the mandate. Developing countries - which have not contributed to the global collapse in fish stocks - need fisheries for their livelihoods and for food security.Market access the true aim of WTO fisheries subsidies negotiations: English, Spanish
Fisheries subsidies negotiations and development in the World Trade Organization
Development agenda
Rich countries have blocked the development agenda since the founding of the WTO, and now are waging an assault against existing flexibilities.Reforming the international trading system for recovery, resilience and inclusive development.
South sets out developmental priorities in face of COVID-19.
New WTO DG delivers "divisive" trade agenda at GC meeting.
Recovering better from COVID-19 will need a rethink of multilateralism.
more on the development agenda …
Agriculture
Agricultural negotiations for MC12: A factsheet for developing countries: English, SpanishInequitable WTO rules in agriculture continue to impact farmers in the developing world: English, Spanish
Stop WTO Expansion!
Pro-corporate governments at the WTO are attempting to pursue a failed agenda of WTO expansion. Developed countries are attempting to undermine the core fundamentals of the WTO's mandate as a multilateral institution and alter decision-making procedures by using MC12 to normalize the “Joint Statement Initiatives (JSIs)” launched at the Buenos Aires Ministerial and henceforward.WHAT’S COOKING FOR MC12? Two processes that could reshape the WTO in the interest of the most powerful: English, Spanish
Why the Joint Statement Initiatives Lack Legal Legitimacy in the WTO, by Law Professor Jane Kelsey, a rebuttal to a previous document by Hamid Mamdouh, “Plurilateral Negotiations and Outcomes in the WTO.” Resumen en español.
The JSI on domestic regulation is finalized. The JSI on investment facilitation is nearly finalized. The JSI on digital trade (a.k.a. “e-commerce”) is still under negotiation.
In addition, there are JSIs on environmental issues and on gender and the WTO. Rather than being progressive calls for putting planetary sustainability or gender equity above commercial interests, these declarations are attempts to push a failed liberalization agenda — “old wine in new bottles”.
WTO reform
Global Civil Society Calls for a WTO Turnaround: New Multilateral Trade Rules for People-Centered Shared Prosperity and Sustainable Development (2021): English, Spanish, French.The WTO 20 years after the 'battle of Seattle'
Looking back on the 1999 protests in Seattle: nwLaborPress.org article
Investment
Investment Facilitation Joint Statement Initiative: No home in the WTOScope of an investment facilitation framework: Implications for its developmental claim
Investment facilitation – Another plurilateral initiative at the WTO and its potential implications
Rebuttal to “The WTO Investment Facilitation Initiative: Why It Matters” – background note: Investment Facilitation for Development: Opening the doors of the WTO for hard rules on investment
Services
Disciplining non-discriminatory domestic regulations in the services sectors – Another plurilateral track at the WTO“Domestic regulation” rules in the WTO: English: pdf, docx. Spanish: pdf, doc.
Session at the 2019 WTO Public Forum: #111. What would services as the next trade frontier look like?
Session at the 2019 WTO Public Forum: #119. Why are computer and related services important?
Digital trade
Some countries are pushing for anti-development, anti-public interest and pro-Big Tech rules in the WTO under the guise of “e‑commerce.”Building back better with e-commerce: A feminist roadmap
Digital Trade Rules: A disastrous new constitution for the global economy written by and for Big Tech: English, Spanish
E-commerce proposals at the WTO: a recipe for corporate greed
Digital trade rules and Big Tech: Surrendering public good to private power
US to target countries that impose digital services taxes
Updated Twelve Reasons: English: pdf, docx. Spanish: pdf, doc. French: pdf, docx.