The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) together with 163 other trade union and civil society organisations are raising concerns over a proposed expansion of the Information Technology Agreement (ITA II) being negotiated at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). In a joint letter to the WTO members, they argued that the proposed expansion, would lead to erosion of manufacturing potential in developing countries and called for a comprehensive impact assessment of ITA I before taking a decision on ITA II.

After many failed Ministerial meetings and nearly twelve years of negotiations, the Doha Round of WTO expansion is at a crossroads. Developed countries have pushed aside agreements to negotiate on key developing country issues intended to correct the imbalances within the existing WTO, which formed the basis of the development mandate of Doha. Even worse, developed countries appear to be re-packaging the same liberalization and market access demands of their corporate interests to create a “new trade narrative” towards gaining agreements at the upcoming 9th Ministerial in Bali. In this statement with specific demands Our World Is Not for Sale (OWINFS) network asserts that in addition to a long-term transformation of the global trade and economic architecture, immediate changes must be made to WTO in order to provide countries more policy space to pursue a positive agenda for development and job-creation, food security, sustainable development, access to affordable healthcare and medicines, and global financial stability.

Today, as governments meet in Geneva to negotiate a proposed Trade in Services Agreement (TISA), 345 organizations representing hundreds of thousands of people from nearly every developing and developed country, called on governments to abandon the talks. Among the endorsers were 42 major international and regional networks such as Public Services International (PSI), UNI Global Union, the European Federation of Public Services Unions (EPSU), the IndustriALL Global Union, the International Union of Food and Allied Workers (IUF), and the ATTAC European network. The letter was organized by the OWINFS network.