Archive - Signon Statement

Trade Ministers from only 35 countries will attend a “mini-Ministerial” in Morocco which is intended to solidify the agenda for the upcoming 11th Ministerial Conference of the 164-member WTO (MC11) to be held December 10-13, 2017 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Members of 300 civil society organizations (CSOs) including trade unions, environmentalists, farmers, development advocates, and public interest groups from over 150 countries just sent an urgent letter to WTO members to raise alarm “that some WTO members are pushing a dangerous and inappropriate new agenda.” It was organized by the global Our World Is Not for Sale (OWINFS) network and is available in English, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Greek.

In a letter to USTR Michael Froman, US civil society groups urged US government to support a transparent and inclusive multilateral process to resolve these pressing issues. U.S. trade policy should enhance countries’ rights to feed their peoples. It should not advance negotiations that leave most countries out of decisions that they then may have to adopt as a fait accompli at a later time.

As members of 453 civil society organizations including trade unions, environmentalists, farmers, development advocates, and public interest groups from over 150 countries, we are writing today to express extreme alarm about the current situation of the negotiations in the WTO. We urge you to take seriously the need for the upcoming Nairobi Ministerial to change existing WTO rules to make the global trading system more compatible with people-centered development, and to forestall efforts by some developed countries to abandon the development agenda and replace it with a set of so-called “new issues” that actually are non-trade issues that would impact deeply on domestic economies and constrain national policy space required for development and public interest.

341 organizations of civil society from over 100 countries of the global North and South, as consumer groups, environmentalists, trade unions, farmers, and other development advocates, have sent a letter to WTO members regarding the wrong direction of the current WTO talks, and urged the governments to substantially turnaround the negotiations in advance of the December Ministerial in Nairobi.

Civil Society Letter to Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO): Request by least developed country members for an extension of the transitional period with respect to pharmaceutical products and for waivers from the obligation of articles 70.8 and 70.9 of the trips agreement

In the backdrop of agreement between India and US on public stockholdings for food security purposes this Global civil society letter highlights that the current solution is inadequate and calls upon WTO members to ensure that developing countries’ and LDCs’ interests are not sacrificed in the current negotiations and at the special General Council meeting on 26 November 2014 in order to clear the path for the TFA.

On the occasion of UNCTAD World Investment Forum 2014, on October 13-16, Global Civil Society, in a letter to Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and Member States of UNCTAD underlined various issues emerge from bilateral investment treaties (BITs) including investor state dispute settlement provisions. It called for a progressive role of UNCTAD to provide support to third world governments in framing alternative policies and remove major impediments to sustainable development created by international investment agreements (IIAs).

In a statement released ahead of the WTO General Council meeting tomorrow, farmers organization in India called upon the Indian Government to stand firm on linking the Food Security proposal with the Trade Facilitation Agreement in WTO. Farmers’ leaders expressed shock over the Chair's summary of the G 20 trade ministers meeting which was held on July 19 at Sydney.

In the backdrop of trade ministers meet in Sydney, today, 164 civil society organizations and trade unions from more than 150 developing and developed countries urged government representatives in Geneva to “condition the entry into force of the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) to the conclusion and fulfillment of the Development mandate under the Doha negotiations.”

In this letter to Ambassador Mike Froman, United State Trade Representative (USTR) and Ambassador Michael Punke Deputy USTR and Permanent Representative to the WTO, Civil society groups from US express dismay over over US opposition to G33 proposal and urged the US government to support the G33’s proposal to allow for greater public spending to ensure more stable food supplies and prices in developing countries