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Trade

COP17: In whose interests?

Kirsty Wright, climate justice campaigner writes from the UN climate talks in Durban

On, the penultimate day of the Durban climate talks, I joined other climate justice allies at what became one of COP17’s most theatrical press conferences yet. Organised by the Climate Justice Now coalition, allies from across the world took this opportunity to give their analysis of the conference so far, making it clear they felt ignored by the governments who are supposed to represent them. Des D’Sa from the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance gave a damning description of how the talks have failed the people of the world: “There have been discussions taking place in closed doors by those in power, who have colleagues in the corporate world and the decisions are not in the interests of mankind.”

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Fair trade, not just Fairtrade

Catherine Negus, Campaigns Assistant

Today marks the launch of Fairtrade Fortnight 2011, a celebration of the most widely-recognised ethical label. Fairtrade sales broke the £1 billion mark last year, showing that even during a recession, many consumers still consider the impact of their buying decisions.

However, there’s a very long way to go before all trade is fair, and it’s unlikely that schemes like Fairtrade can bring this about by themselves. Part of their strength is that by using market solutions and focusing on changing public attitudes, they do not alienate anyone. But this approach is also a weakness. The need for Fairtrade schemes is a clear sign that the current global economic system only makes the rich richer.

Commercial giants

The monopolies of huge companies like Cargill, ConAgra and Unilever and of the supermarkets keep selling prices low at the expense of producers. This keeps farmers in the global south working for survival, with little chance of building up their own economies. Often small farmers, who can be very efficient at producing food and protecting the environment, cannot survive.

Fairtrade supports the income of its producers in the global south, and, says Deborah Doane, WDM’s director...

A new trade strategy for Europe? No, it's more of the same forced liberalisation we've seen for 40 years

Heidi Chow, campaigns assistant

WDM has been campaigning on trade issues for most of its 40 year history and throughout this whole period the same thread has persisted: Rich countries forcing developing countries to open their markets to enable big business to line its pockets - at the expense of the poorest people in the world.

And so on Tuesday, when the European Union announced its new trade policy, Trade, Growth and World Affairs we weren’t at all surprised when we saw the same thread running through this ‘new’ strategy.

Earlier this year, the EU announced that it would be reviewing its ‘Global Europe’ strategy – the strategy devised by Peter Mandelson to target developing countries for trade deals. These trade deals massively favour Europe, enabling European businesses to make more profits, while people in developing countries lose jobs, livelihoods and industries. And this week, the new trade strategy, unveiled, after seven months of consultation, looks set to do pretty much the same thing.

The strategy wants to see the Doha round of...

WDM looks at why the MDGs are not being met in Africa

The progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals is being discussed at a summit in New York. The goals were set in 2000 with a target of meeting them by 2015. Ten years later, it's clear that progress in many areas is slow, espeicially for countries in sub-Saharan Africa, where over half the population continues to live in abject poverty.

Deborah Doane, director of UK based, anti-poverty campaigners, the World Development Movement explains why:
“With only five years to reach the Millennium Development Goals, leaders of rich countries need to get beyond inspirational speeches, and pledging more aid money that never arrives. Heads of State are delivering rhetoric but little else.

"They need to address the root causes of poverty that simply aren’t being mentioned: including an unfair trading system, unjust debt burdens and the biggest elephant in the room: climate change. If governments continue to dodge these thorny issues, then ultimately, MDG project will be doomed to failure.”

The World Development Movement believes that the lack of progress can be attributed to three central failures by rich countries which are neglecting people in sub-Saharan Africa in particular, but are also failing to address inequality between...

Assessing the progress towards the Millenium Development Goals - goal by goal

With only five years left to meet the MDGs, WDM has analysed where progress has been made. It is striking that people in Sub-Saharan Africa are being neglected. WDM believes that this worrying trend is at least partly due to a post 9/11 preoccupation with national security interests at the expense of poverty alleviation strategies. This is likely to be entrenched by the UK still deeper if you read between the lines of recent comments by Nick Clegg and Andrew Mitchell that the UK will increase aid for fragile and conflict ridden countries.

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme hunger and poverty

The flagship target of the MDG programme is that the number of people living on less than $1.25 per day is halved. We appear on course globally, but Africa is being left behind. Sub-Saharan Africa is now the only region where more than half of the population still live in extreme poverty.

Conversely, no progress was made in reducing hunger between 2000 and 2007. Since then we’ve seen the 2008 food price spike, during which, for example, the price of maize meal in Nairobi more than doubled. The result is that hunger topped 1 billion in 2009 and although some of the latest figures show that...

Blog post: The most dangerous dog

Here in the UK, the review of legislation on dangerous dogs has caught media attention – how some dogs are being bred as weapons to intimate others and at times have attacked vulnerable people like children. It’s a strange analogy, and one which I probably would not have made myself, but this morning European campaigners wanted to make a point that EU trade policy is like a dangerous dog - it’s predatory, aggressive and dangerous to the poorest people in the world.

The S2B group of campaigners staged a media stunt outside a trade conference on ‘EU trade policy towards developing countries’ hosted by the European trade commission. A five-metre high inflated savage dog, representing EU trade policy, was let off its lead by a giant business official, attacking victims representing small farmers, small businesses, women and indigenous people from the developing world.

The S2B network, which WDM is a member of, criticised the conference as a poor attempt to wrap a dangerous corporate trade agenda in development rhetoric. Current trade policies benefit European multinationals helping them to reap more profits but threaten the livelihoods of small farmers and...

Blog post: Fairtrade

Yesterday the Fairtrade Foundation launched the start of their annual campaigning event: ‘Fairtrade Fortnight’ with the news that the value of Fairtrade sales, was up on 2008 by 12% to an estimated retail value of over £800m. We’ve come a long way and these figures paint a welcome picture that there is a growing number of people who care about the impact of their purchases on producers in developing countries. There is no denying that Fairtrade has benefited millions in developing countries and increasing UK sales will benefit many more. But the £800m Fairtrade sales is just a tiny slice of the overall pie where the grocery market alone is estimated at £150bn.

Fairtrade still has a long way to go and even then it can only go so far. The global trading system is unjust whether it is the European Union pushing for unfair trade deals with developing countries or unfair trade rules being negotiated at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Global trade...

Blog post: World Trade Organisation's latest attempt to defuse resistance

Earlier this week, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) announced a new programme to support teaching on trade policy and ‘WTO-related matters’ in universities in developing countries. This programme would fund teaching, research and outreach on trade issues à la WTO.

The current Doha round is in its painful ninth year and the failure to come to a conclusion has been testament to the growing resistance of civil society and developing country governments to the bullying tactics at the WTO where rich countries have sought to fiercely promote corporate interests.

The WTO has made gains in opening up markets in developing countries but they want more. They are upping their game: If you can’t always get your way with negotiators from developing countries, why not groom some instant advocates in key countries, through a programme to indoctrinate, sorry I mean influence, a generation of potential policymakers and trade experts in the ways of the WTO?

This strategy bears uncanny resemblance to the 1957 US funded programme for Chilean students to study Economics at the University of Chicago, as cited by Naomi Klein in The Shock Doctrine, in the hope of challenging the socialist regime back home. Chicago was, of course, home to Milton Friedman and these students were...

European parliamentary hearing of Europe’s new trade commissioner

MEPs fired questions at the new European trade commissioner Karel de Gucht in a European Parliamentary hearing last week (12 January).

Unsurprisingly De Gucht listed his priorities as: Concluding the WTO Doha round, bilateral trade deals and completing Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) - sticking closely to the predatory path mapped out by his predecessors Peter Mandelson and Baroness Catharine Ashton.

De Gucht was keen to tout his development credentials as the former development commissioner and confirmed his commitment to Doha with the usual rhetoric that free trade will help the poor. However this was called into question when De Gucht was challenged over the massive job losses and industrial destruction that proposed EU trade deals would cause in poorer countries and that pushing for more market access was really about generating superprofits for European big business. De Gucht was evasive and unable to deny that development was being sacrificed for corporate interest and instead gave a cursory answer about trade policy being a vehicle to project European values about human rights and climate change.

Carrying on the thread of corporate interest in European policy making, Caroline Lucas (Green MEP from UK) expressed concern at the...

Campaigners demand complete debt cancellation for Haiti

After Tuesday’s earthquake, which has left up to 50,000 people dead, WDM has joined the Jubilee Debt Campaign in calling for an urgent cancellation of all of Haiti's remaining debt.

"The poverty that already exists in Haiti will be even more devastating as a result of this emergency and it clearly requires high levels of aid to combat it. This should also come with wholesale debt cancellation and the need to need to ensure that aid is given in the form of genuine grants as opposed to traditional IMF-backed loans, which would undoubtedly worsen an already dire situation", said Julian Oram, Head of Policy at WDM.

We welcome the cancellation of two thirds ($1.2 billion) of Haiti’s debt in 2009, but condemn the fact that the country still has $641 million in debt on its books and in 2010 is projected to pay around $10million to International Financial Institutions.

We also think that the International Monetary Fund’s proposed offer of $100 million in new lending to Haiti is completely inappropriate. Even though lent at very concessional rates of interest, the proposal contradicts the IMF’s own policy recommendations that Haiti should not borrow more money because...

Nestle's fair trade four fingered Kit Kat.

This morning it's been announced that Nestle will be gaining the Fair Trade mark for its four-fingered Kit Kat.

Although the World Development Movement is pleased that some small farmers in the Cote d'Ivoire will earn a little more as a result of Nestle's four-fingered, Kit Kat's move to Fairtrade, this is a long way from achieving trade justice.

It must be put into perspective: the Fairtrade mark only applies to sales of Kit Kat's four-finger bars in the first instance - and the premium represents less than one per cent of their Kit Kat sales. We won't be satisfied until we see a deeper transformation of their business model, not just in cocoa for one product, but for all products. Nestle's current model is based on paying farmers in the developing world a pittance whilst the company rakes in hundreds of millions of pounds of profits every year.

Nestle holds a staggering amount of power in the UK confectionery market, and the use of the Fairtrade label should not distract attention from Nestle's continued lobbying against any reforms to the unfair trade rules that keep the price of cocoa low.

With Fairtrade products now firmly established in the market, all of us in the Fairtrade movement should now raise our game by pushing for...

WTO Blog 6: Cliff-hanger

I mentioned roosting chickens in an earlier blog, I’m not obsessed with them honestly but chickens have come up again during my time in Geneva. Ghana used to have a buoyant poultry industry but subsidised poultry from the EU has decimated the Ghanaian poultry industry.

I heard Kenneth Quartey who represents Ghanian poulty farmers say that: “If the Doha Round concludes we see little space for agriculture in Ghana and in Africa, where 60 per cent of the population relies on agriculture for its income. We just simply do not know what to do next.” This sentiment is echoed around the world by farmers and fishers, labour groups and environmentalists who all see a Doha conclusion as a complete and utter disaster.

The WTO ministerial closed today with the reaffirmation that development is still central to the Doha round and a 2010 deadline is still on the cards. It beggars belief, that the WTO has the cheek to use the word ‘development’ when its rules and policies are decimating entire sectors (e.g. chickens in Ghana and cotton in West Africa) causing massive job losses in its wake and derailing much needed poverty alleviation in developing countries.

Development is also about enabling countries to...

Cotton-Four

Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali are collectively known as the ‘cotton 4’ because they are cotton producing countries in West Africa and have been trying to the get the US to reduce their cotton subsidies for almost a decade.

The US subsidises its cotton production which leads to over-supply and subsequently a low market price for cotton. Today I heard Ambassador Samuel Amehou from Benin speak at an Africa Trade Network event about the desperation that farmers are feeling and the injustice of the situation “Farmers are losing hope for their cotton. Something needs to be done urgently otherwise our cotton sector will die and many farmers will end up in a bad situation.”

Tomorrow the WTO ministerial closes and no doubt, there will be some statement that re-affirms the Doha round to be about development. There may even be a renewed commitment to conclude the round by the end of 2010. But this cotton issue clearly illustrates the WTO negotiations are not about development, they are not about poverty alleviation and not about giving farmers in the cotton 4 a fair chance to make a sustainable living. And this is just one example of how a WTO deal would hurt the poorest people in the...

Delegates to WTO ministerial conference welcomed by singing campaigners

The WTO ministerial conference officially opened this afternoon at 3pm (2pm UK time) and as delegates from around the world were entering into the open plenary session, they were welcomed by singing trade campaigners from the Our World is Not for Sale (OWINFS) network - a network of organisations, activists and social movements worldwide fighting the current model of corporate globalisation embodied in the global trading system. The World Development Movement is a member of OWINFS and WDM trade campaigner Heidi Chow was also part of the group of singing activists. Their song was based on the tune of jingle bells and started with "no new round, turn around, the world has had enough..."

OWINFS were keen to ensure that the delegates were aware of the global protest against the WTO and the Doha round.

You can receive live updates on twitter or though Heidi's blog and read more about the WTO

WTO blog 4: Lugaw and tuyo

I need to apologise for ‘dissing’ my badge yesterday because today it proved to be a really useful friend. It got me and 30 other trade campaigners from around the world, into the ministerial conference where we were able to stand just outside of the door to the hall where the opening plenary was held. As the delegations were entering the hall, they were greeted with us singing WTO protest songs to the tune of ‘Jingle bells’ and ‘It’s been a hard day’s night’.

There was a great atmosphere as most of the delegates found it amusing and enjoyed the commotion. The opening session is often littered with speeches about the merits of the WTO but we wanted the delegates and press to see that there is much opposition to WTO policies across the world.

I met Pabs Rosales who is a fisherman from the Philippines (they call themselves ‘fisherfolk’ so that is how I will refer to them from here on) who leads the Progressive Fisherfolk Alliance in the Philippines.

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WTO blog 3: What's on the agenda?

Today I have been attending briefings in preparation for the ministerial conference which starts at 3pm tomorrow afternoon. I walked to the WTO building to pick up my badge which will allow me access to the ministerial as well as the NGO centre.

During a NGO briefing, we were told that we could access the open spaces at the ministerial conference (book shop, coffee bar, loos) but that the main sessions would be closed and only 42 people from NGOs (there are around 500 NGO representatives in total here) could attend the opening plenary. Most of the NGOs in the room were not happy with the lack of access but shrugged their shoulders and rolled their eyes acknowledging this is how the WTO works – unaccountable and untransparent. A Norwegian campaigner commented that when he attended the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation summit, NGOs were allowed access to the meetings and were even allowed to take the floor in some debates. The director of public affairs could only confess that the WTO were not that ‘advanced’ yet.

So my badge can get me coffee (which I don’t drink) and books (on free trade)…

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WTO blog 2: Demonstration day

The day started with the news that three members of the Korean delegation were being detained at the airport. Yoon Geum Sum, from the Korean Women Peasant Association, La Via Campesina told us how the three members were stripped naked and searched. She said: "This is a violation of human rights and a criminalisation of social movements." I've just heard that they have already been sent on a flight back home.

So the mood was dampened by this news but then we had to start getting ready for the mass demonstration which had been arranged by the local Swiss campaigners.

I was really looking forward to this demonstration as I had heard about it months ago and at WDM we have been encouraging our local groups to stage media stunts in their local areas in solidarity with the Geneva based protest today.

So I was spurred on knowing that many of our own activists and groups were doing likewise back home.

However, halfway through the march, I started noticing shop after shop had smashed windows,

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WTO blog 1: Chickens come home to roost

I arrived in Geneva at 5pm this evening (having left my home in London at 6am) and I had to quickly drop my luggage off at the hotel, work out the tram system and then get myself to a meeting with other trade campaigners from around the world. I arrived at the meeting, just as the pizza did, so not bad timing I thought.

I’m here for the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial conference which is taking place on 30 November – 2 December. Ten years on from the Seattle protests that shut down the talks in 1999, the world finds itself in a perilous state faced with global emergencies in the economy, food, climate and employment. The chickens have come home to roost. Let me explain why…The economic crisis finds its roots in the deregulation of financial markets that enabled banks and lenders to engage in reckless lending and ultimately brought the global economy to its knees. The US and EU were key drivers behind this move to deregulate, they exported their deregulation agenda and got it enshrined in the WTO rules but now it is biting them back.

Last year, world leaders agreed on the need for more regulation to prevent a reoccurrence of the financial crisis, yet there are WTO rules that actually constrain governments from regulating their financial sectors. There is...

Worldwide protest in the run up to WTO

Farmers, unions, fisherfolk and other civil society groups from around the world will be converging in Geneva for the WTO Ministerial at the end of the month. But ten years after Seattle, the struggle against the WTO has been globalised and Geneva will not be the only focus for WTO protest. Instead, activists around the world are organising protests and events in their own towns and cities to show the strength of global resistance.

WTO protest from 2005

The World Development Movement has a long track record on campaigning on the WTO and will be organising media stunts on Saturday 28 November – in solidarity with the major civil society demonstration in Geneva on the same day. Costumed campaigners from WDM groups will be staging tug of wars across the UK.

The tug of war media stunts between farmers and corporations represents the gross power imbalances at the WTO where corporate interests drive the agenda leaving the concerns and needs of developing countries out-weighed.

The London WDM groups have joined forces to stage a tug of war media stunt around Borough market (2:30pm, near Borough market...

Thank you for taking action on the WTO

Thank you for taking action on the World Trade Organisation

We've sent a confirmation to the email address you gave us.

In order to get a response from the Trade Commissioner it's vital that as many people as possible take part in this action.

Spread the word!

The global economic crisis: Lessons for European trade policy

Europe's proposed trade deals are based on the same liberalisation mantra that drove the deregulation of financial markets and eventually led to the current global economic crisis. The World Development Movement believes that there needs to be a fundamental review of the European Commission's pursuit of more free trade deals. This briefing is intended for MEPs to highlight key lessons from the global crisis and demonstrate why a new approach to trade is needed.

Economic Partnership Agreements - what MEPs need to know

Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) are trade deals being negotiated between the European Union (EU) and 76 developing countries – mostly former colonies in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (the ACP). The agreements set the rules of trade between Europe and these countries for decades to come, affecting the lives of millions of people. This briefing is intended for MEPs and provides a detailed analysis of how these deals will affect the poorest people in the world.

The EU-India Free Trade Agreement - what MEPs need to know

Negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) between the EU and India began in 2007, with the intention of reaching a comprehensive deal to liberalise trade in goods, services, investment and government procurement. This briefing is intended for MEPs and highlights the key concerns around the impacts of this proposed trade deal on the poorest people in India.

First appearances are deceiving at the WTO meeting

The WTO mini-ministerial in Delhi has now concluded. On first appearances, it looks as if the meeting has given a boost to the cause of free trade and a WTO deal break through. Afterall, Shri Anand Sharma, India's commerce and industry minister issued a final statement to say, "There was a unanimous affirmation on the need to conclude the Doha Round within 2010."

But affirming the desire to finalise the process is not the same as actually taking concrete steps to reach that goal. So there are no new commitments on the table, and key players like the US have refused to reveal their hand. Importantly, developing and developed countries are still split over what subjects should be on the negotiating table and which countries will be invited to talk around it.

Assessing the final statement from the meeting, the World Development Movement's trade officer Vicky Cann says, "Even once the dust has settled, it will be hard to see what has come out of this meeting. Ministers may be sending their officials back to Geneva to re-start talks, but these negotiations remain based on highly flawed papers which can only lead to an outcome which penalises the poor and rewards major corporations. The WTO will re-convene ministers in December in Geneva and we, along with millions...

The G20 road show is back in town

The G20 road show is back in town, five months after the last jamboree was held in London.

Lost in the media circus surrounding April’s G20 meetings (which at times seemed more interested in Michelle Obama’s sartorial choices and the menu at the Jamie Oliver banquet in 10 Downing Street), was important discussion about who was – and was not – in the room for the substantive talks.

As with April’s meeting, this week’s G20 finance ministers meeting continues to see only the usual suspects from large economies present and specifically only one African country (South Africa) in attendance. As Nobel prize-winning economist Professor Joseph Stiglitz recently remarked, “There are 192 countries in the world, [and] 20 is a small percentage. Obviously what is necessary to respond to the crisis is not a G20 but a G192.”

But it’s not just attendance at these gatherings that needs to change; it’s the policy prescriptions that come out of them that also need to change, if we are to tackle climate change, global poverty and the spectre of rising unemployment around the world.

Amongst the rhetoric expected to flow from the G20 will be further demands for more free trade, even though free trade is associated with job losses and an undermining of local...

The last chance to save the WTO – again!

Once again, this week, trade ministers from around the world are meeting, this time in Delhi, with the stated aim of kick-starting stalled World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks. And yet again, there is a lot of smoke and mirrors concealing countries’ true negotiating positions.

Part of the gathering of 50,000 Indian farmers who rallied in Delhi against the WTO

Why is India hosting this meeting? Does it really want to finalise a Doha deal, or is it hurt by accusations that it scuppered the July 2008 talks and so it just wants to be seen to be ‘talking the talk’? What position will the Obama administration take? Rhetorically, it talks about the need to sign a deal and for countries to avoid protectionism, but it is under huge pressure at home as unemployment grows and the recession continues.

Meanwhile, Pascal Lamy (the WTO’s director-general) continues to tighten the negotiating screws, stating that only 20 per cent of issues remain to be resolved. Proposals have been circulated to speed-up the process, to ‘bank’ what has already been agreed, and to move on to look at timetabling issues with the hope that this will unblock the remaining issues...

War of words over global trade

Global Trade Alert a website part-funded by the UK government, was launched last month, has hit the headlines as a weapon in rich countries' armoury in the war of words designed to defeat protectionism and help free trade to conquer all.

The database monitors and highlights 'protectionist' policies that countries are implementing due to the economic down turn. This could go a long way to explaining the myriad of articles that declare that protectionism is killing global trade]

In The Times, the co-founder of the site, Professor Evenett, criticises developing countries for raising tariffs. But this is a very one-sided view point as European governments are currently implementing protectionist measures with gusto: they are bailing out the banking and car industries; increasing export subsidies for the dairy industry; and supporting a global intellectual property rights regime which through patents and monopolies means that European businesses can keep their technology to themselves. For developing countries, this means missing out on access to medicines and renewable energy technologies to combat climate change.

At the same time as being blamed for...

Stop Europe’s Damaging Trade Deals

Europe’s trade policies put big business before the interests of people and the environment.

They will particularly harm the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world: destroying jobs, small-scale industries and the livelihoods of small farmers, as well as increasing environmental exploitation and human rights abuses.

Inside Europe, these policies are undermining job security, privatising our public services and promoting the exploitation of migrant workers.

And all this is being done to help big business secure big profits.

Now there is a new Trade Commissioner and with the rest of the EU Commission due to be replaced in 2009, we have a chance for a new approach. We must start campaigning now to make them scrap the current policies and seize this opportunity to turn European trade around.

Join the growing resistance around the world and take action to change the way Europe trades.

Europe-Central America trade deal responses

Thank you for taking our action to put the brakes on the EU-Central America trade deal. Some people have received a response from the European Commission and while we are not encouraging people to get into a detailed debate with the negotiators about this deal, here are a few comments in response to their email.

The EU negotiators say:

the EU and all Central American chief negotiators… renewed their commitment to come to a rapid conclusion of this Agreement

The Nicaraguan government is now back at the negotiating table but concerns are still reported amongst some Central American governments. In particular, a new government will take over in El Salvador in June and negotiations should be halted so that Central American governments can “reach a common position” as our action states. Meanwhile, civil society and trade unions in the region remain very concerned and have issued new statements demanding a halt to negotiations in May 2009.

The EU negotiators agree

to study the creation of a financial mechanism dedicated to Central America's regional development

Of course, this can be welcomed, but such a mechanism must not become a ‘carrot’ to persuade governments...

Put the brakes on an unfair Europe-Central America trade deal

The European Union is currently rushing through secret negotiations on a trade deal with a group of Central American countries. This trade deal could increase poverty and inequality in a region where 40% of the population live off less than US $2 a day.

There is a crucial opportunity to put the brakes on the proposed trade deal. Several Central American governments are expressing reservations about the deal and we need to take action to demand European negotiators change their approach.

You can email the European negotiators who are involved in this deal and ask them to put the breaks on these negotiations.
Trade deals fuel poverty and inequality

Norma Maldonado, a trade campaigner from Guatemala, has joined with the World Development Movement to help stop this deal which could harm the poorest people in her region. Women, in particular, could be hardest hit by shrinking public services resulting from the deal.

Since 2007, the European Commission has been negotiating an agreement with a group of Central American countries (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, with Panama as an observer), a region where 40 per cent of people live on less than US$2 a day. The Commission is desperate to...

In-depth trade information

This page features briefings and reports about trade. Briefings tend to be shorter (2-3 pages), more concise summaries of our campaign policy which are ideal if you want to get up to speed with our campaign quickly.

Reports are longer (30-100 pages) in depth documents which WDM produces to influence policy makers and governments. If you would like to request paper copies of our materials, please get in touch.

All our materials are provided in PDF format. Most computers will open PDF documents automatically, but you may need Adobe Reader Download the reader here

After the elections, the hard work really starts…

So the results are in and weeks of fevered speculation and variable opinion polls now give way to the post European election analysis. In the UK, the voters have delivered a bloody nose to Labour, which may or may not turn out to be a fatal blow for Gordon Brown. The rise of the far right gives all of us serious pause for thought and emphasises that there has never been a more important time for progressive politics to stand-up against racial extremism.

Across Europe, a not dissimilar picture has emerged with the right doing well and the left in many countries having performed poorly. The exception to these trends has been the strong showing of the Greens in the UK and across Europe. Europe-wide, the Green-bloc has picked up some new seats, and in the UK their vote share was up, although they did not add to their existing two seats.

As for the World Development Movement’s campaign to ask candidates to commit to taking action to ‘stop Europe's unfair trade deals’ in the new parliament, the hard work really begins.

For those 18 elected UK MEPs who have signed the pledge to be a trade hero and raise the issue that unfair trade deals do not work for poor people, supporters will now be following up with them to make sure that their commitments are turned into...

Apathy in the EU: Is it us or the politicians?

Apathy and discontent are a heady mix. MEP candidates in the UK are facing both in this week's EU elections. But is it really the voters who are apathetic?

World Development Movement (WDM) supporters are committed people who care deeply about global poverty and work hard in their spare time to campaign locally on global justice issues and engage others to take part in the democratic process. During the EU election campaign, WDM supporters have written hundreds of probing emails and letters and held numerous MEP hustings across the country encouraging candidates to pledge to stop Europe's unfair free trade deals, if they are elected.

Of course, in the context of global economic crisis the issue of free trade is one of the most important facing these aspiring parliamentarians. At the last count, 75 candidates had signed the World Development Movement's ‘Trade Hero’ pledge, with more pledges coming in every day. Clearly MEP candidates have a responsibility to offer solutions and opinions to their constituencies.

And yet, despite the success of the pledge, feedback from WDM supporters also shows disappointment in the candidates who arrived at meetings late, unprepared or both, or who cancelled attendance at the last minute. Surely, prospective politicians should...

Fairtrade

Millions of people working in agriculture, manufacturing and services
are not reached by Fairtrade. We need to change the unfair trade
rules that keep them in poverty. The European Union (EU) is now
pushing for unfair trade deals with over 100 countries. These deals
will put European companies first, not the 1.5 billion people in these
countries living on less than US$2 a day. This briefing explores the potential of Fairtrade.

European banks fail the world's poor - Campaign briefing

A poorly regulated, bonus driven banking sector is regarded as the main culprit of the current global economic turmoil. While banks face increasing criticism, the industry continues to lobby the European Commission to ensure Europe's trade deals give them greater access to developing country markets. The consequences could be disastrous as evidence shows that foreign banks are already failing the poor, leaving millions excluded from the essential financial services they require to build sustainable livelihoods.

Taking the credit - How financial services liberalisation fails the poor

This report assesses the role that UK, European and US banks play in developing countries, especially following trade deals which locked-in financial services liberalisation. It shows how the loan practices of big foreign banks in India and Mexico were reducing access to credit for small firms or poor households, and shifting credit away from ‘productive activities’ towards funding personal consumption for wealthier people. The report calls upon European leaders to change their approach to trade policy and stop demanding greater financial services liberalisation from developing countries.

Impacts of trade deals - How Europe's free trade deals have affected Mexico and South Africa

The European Union is currently negotiating a new wave of trade deals that will benefit European corporations at the expense of the world’s poorest people. These trade deals are unfair. They will reduce the ability of developing countries to use important policy tools to boost their own development and to support local industries. The evidence shows that these deals will not benefit the poor in these countries but will benefit a few multinational companies. The World Development Movement (WDM) is calling for these trade deals to be stopped. WDM analyses past trade deals in Mexico and South Africa to highlight the negative impact of such deals.

Inside global Europe - Explaining Europe's trade strategy

The European Union’s Global Europe trade strategy has been driven by the demands of corporate lobbyists in Brussels and is aimed at securing a number of regional trade deals designed to ratchet open markets in the developing world. The World Development Movement (WDM) believes that these agreements will legally ‘lock in’ a series of policies that will undermine the ability of these countries to provide basic needs, reduce poverty and develop. In this briefing WDM analyses how Europe’s trade deals could impact on the poor.

WDM and trade – The history of WDM’s trade campaigning

Over the past forty years, the World Development Movement (WDM) has had many successes campaigning against unjust trade rules which only benefit the rich and powerful. Today we continue to actively campaign for a trading system that works in the interests of the poor. This briefing provides an overview of that campaigning history.

Trade campaign summary

Trade has the potential to lift millions out of poverty. But the current rules of trade are biased in favour of multinational companies and often hurt the poor. This briefing summarises the World Development Movement’s trade campaign as of May 2008.

Europe’s corporate takeover - Europe, trade and big business

Trade has the potential to lift millions out of poverty. But the current rules of trade are biased in favour of big business at the expense of the world’s poor. Trade takes place on a number of levels – whether it is goods you buy, services you use or the direct exchange of money. In 2006, European officials and big European companies targeted developing countries for new trade deals. But history shows that these kinds deals make companies richer without benefiting the poor.

Raw deal - The EU's unfair trade deals with Mexico and South Africa

This report analyses two prior EU trade agreements to answer the key questions: Why do a trade deal with the EU? What are the benefits? It shows how South Africa’s agreement goes well beyond World Trade Organisation (WTO) commitments and how these commitments led to increased imports from the EU, to South Africa’s cost. The second half of the report looks at the EU-Mexico trade agreement and NAFTA. It shows that although NAFTA resulted in more trade and foreign investment in Mexico, this did not translate into a healthier economy. It concludes that the main beneficiaries of the EU’s bilateral trade agreements have been European companies. Poor and marginalised groups in Mexico and South Africa have tended to end up worse off.

Missing presumed dead - Whatever happened to the Development Round?

WDM explains in depth the decision to call for an end to the ‘Development Round’ of trade talks. This is not a report in the traditional sense; it is predominantly the story of the past six year’s of trade negotiations. It aims to give a sense of how the talks ‘progressed’ and how the main players acted on the international stage. WDM realise that calling for the current negotiating text to be torn up may have seemed like a worse outcome than cobbling together some sort of agreement based on what is currently on the table. Chapters 5 and 6 of the report therefore address the principal arguments used to justify the ‘any deal is better than no deal’ approach.

A bad deal - WDM’s analysis of the outcome of the WTO’s Hong Kong ministerial meeting

WDM analyses the outcome of the WTO’s Hong Kong ministerial meeting. The analysis shows how developing countries have been further locked into the aggressive liberalisation agenda of the EU and US in services and industrial products. It argues that setting a date for the end of export subsidies is a largely symbolic gesture, one promised since the birth of the WTO. The gains were minor compared to the damage done by radical cuts in industrial tariffs and liberalisation of trade in services.