*{ http://www.foeeurope.org/press/euus.htm
22 juillet 2002

PRESS RELEASE

 June 21, 1999 – For immediate release }

 *partie=titre Friends of the Earth calls on EU-US summit to cease plans for a ‘Millennium Round‘ in the WTO *partie=nil 

Bonn – Friends of the Earth International, a federation of independent environmental groups in 61 countries, calls on governments to cease negotiations to initiate a new comprehensive round of trade negotiations. EU-US summit leaders meeting today will discuss trade negotiations in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and existing and looming trade disputes concerning e.g. hormone treated beef (1) and genetically modified food.

‘The implementation of WTO rules has profound negative environmental, social and gender implications’, says Alexandra Wandel, trade co-ordinator of FoE Europe. ‘The WTO is moving full speed in the wrong direction. Governments urgently need to conduct a comprehensive review of the current trade liberalisation and revise existing trade rules in order to develop a world trade system that benefits people and the environment‘.

Carol Welch from FoE US warned, ‘Environmental groups all over the world are starting to campaign to stop government representatives from including new issues, such as investment, in a new trade round. A transfer of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment to the WTO will not be accepted. In the run up to the WTO Ministerial Conference in Seattle in November 1999 civil society groups from all over the world are urging governments to maximise the protection of the world‘s scarce natural resources and to share the world‘s wealth more equitably‘, she says.

Emmanuel Agyapong from FoE Ghana says ‘In Ghana the impacts of the implementation of the WTO agreements have led to the loss of jobs, sustainable livelihoods and destruction of ecosystems. Many developing countries are opposing the efforts of the EU and the US to push for a new round of trade negotiations. Additional liberalisation will put an unsustainable burden on our local economies.’ 

FoE calls on EU-US summit leaders to:

Cease negotiations for further trade liberalisation in the WTO which would bring new issues in the WTO 
Agree on an assessment of the WTO’s impact on the environment, health, development, democracy, human and labour rights and the lives of women, children and marginalised people. 
Cease plans to include investment negotiations in the WTO 
Protect local, national and international environmental and social laws from being undermined by trade rules 
Develop a democratic and transparent trading system 
Forgive debt and reject export-led development 

*{ For further information, please contact:
Alexandra Wandel, FoEE, Tel: +32-2-5420185
Marc Engelhardt, FoE Germany, +49-171-4870891


Footnotes: }

[1] Transatlantic relations have worsened over the last few months, following increasingly aggressive attacks by the United States on the EU's banana import regime and its ban on hormone treated beef from the US. According to a recent WTO ruling the European Union is obliged to remove its ban on American imports of hormone-treated beef. This non-discriminatory ban has been imposed by the EU since 1989 because of health concerns. Nevertheless, the US argued that the EU had insufficient scientific evidence for the ban; and has drawn up a list of imports - expected to be worth some $900 million – due for punitive duties should the ban not be withdrawn. The EU is currently in the process of conducting further scientific research on the hormones in question.