Posted on 15th November 2001

Environment Non-Issue For WTO

DOHA, Qatar, November 10, 2001 (ENS) - The World Trade Organization's 4th
Ministerial Conference approved today by consensus the text of the
agreement for China's entry into the organization. China will become
legally a member 30 days after the World Trade Organization (WTO) receives
notification of the ratification of the agreement by China's Parliament.

The 142 member governments of the WTO are meeting at the Qatar
International Exhibition Centre. It is the first WTO ministerial conference
since anti-globalization protesters, concerned that environmental and labor
protections may be lost as international trade expands, shut down the WTO
meeting in Seattle in 1999. Opening this WTO session Friday, Director
General Mike Moore made mention of Seattle but made no mention of the
environment as an issue of concern during this meeting. The WTO objectives,
Moore said, "are the further liberalization of trade, the creation of more
jobs, the strengthening of the multilateral system and the extension of the
full benefits of that system to countries now marginalized by poverty. "The
issues facing Ministers this week are essentially the same as those we
faced and failed to resolve at our conference in Seattle two years ago, but
we are now vastly better prepared to deal with them. This is largely thanks
to the extraordinary process of consultation and debate which has dominated
the work of the WTO throughout the past two years," Moore said referring to
clarification of issues that took place at the WTO headquarters in Geneva.
"We learned lessons in Seattle which we applied in the Geneva process,"
Moore said, "and which we must not forget over the next few days. “The
world economy needs the signal of confidence in open markets and commitment
to international cooperation which agreements here will deliver," Moore said.

Welcoming the delegates to his country, His Highness Shaikh Hamad Bin
Khalifa Al-Thani, Prime Minister of Qatar, said the multilateral trade
system has contributed to the growth of world economy and over the past 20
years has helped some developing countries to boost their economic and
social development. "However, the benefits were not uniformly spread," the
sheik said, and have bypassed many developing countries. This can be seen
if we look at income distribution across the world, which is still skewed
in favour of the few in an unacceptable manner. Eighty percent of the world
population consumes only 15 percent of the resources of the world, while
the other 20 percent consume about 85 percent of those resources," he said.

The international environmental group Greenpeace has the same imbalance in
mind as it lobbies WTO participants to hold the United States accountable
for the greenhouse gases it emits burning fossil fuels to power its
economy. The Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior, sailed into Doha with the
purpose of challenging the WTO to use this ministerial conference "to force
the United States to commit to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change." The
operations rulebook for the Kyoto Protocol was finalized early this morning
in Morocco by governments of 171 countries, without the agreement of the
United States. “The WTO in its own charter claims to promote the use of the
world’s resources for sustainable development,” said Greenpeace
International Executive Director, Gerd Leipold, on board the Rainbow
Warrior. “That claim is nonsense if they do not actively promote efforts to
combat climate change through the Kyoto Protocol. By allowing the U.S. to
remain outside the protocol, the WTO is effectively handing them a
multi-billion dollar trade subsidy. This makes a mockery of the
organization’s own rules.”

Trade unions and their members are organizing and participating in around
70 anti-globalization actions in 45 countries. More than 10,000 workers
demonstrated Friday in Sofia. "Many of the worst effects of globalization
are felt in the developing world, and the broad participation of workers in
the non-industrialized countries, shows just how widespread the discontent
is," said Bill Jordan, general secretary of the International Confederation
of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU). Jordan, who is leading a 50 member trade
union delegation in Qatar, pointed out that roughly half of the actions are
taking place in developing and transition countries.