Archive - Dec 2009 - Article

Trade Unions in the Americas urge governments and trade negotiators gathered in Geneva to fulfill the commitments of the Global Jobs Pact
Victor Baez*

The trade union organizations affiliated to the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA) have been closely following the Doha Round negotiations since they were reactivated in 2007. The trade union movement remains mobilized before the 7th WTO Ministerial Conference in Geneva.

Entre el 30 de noviembre y el 2 de diciembre de 2009 se realizará en Ginebra la VII reunión ministerial de la OMC. Será un nuevo esfuerzo de reanudar las negociaciones de la Ronda de Doha, iniciada hace 8 años, y un escenario donde los países desarrollados nuevamente intentarán imponer su propia agenda de liberalización y desregulación de los mercados.

WTO+10: Before 1999, the momentum of globalization seemed to sweep everything in front of it, including the truth. But in Seattle, ordinary women and men made truth real with collective action.

FOR weeks before the 1999 World Trade Organization Ministerial meeting in Seattle, state and local authorities had known that peaceful protests were being planned around the Washington State Convention & Trade Center. But as I drove through downtown on the night of Nov. 29 and saw waves of people returning from a rally waving placards, I got a sinking feeling that the anti-trade sentiment was stronger than people had anticipated. Was it ever.

I've also just returned from a protest march against the WTO here in Geneva, attended by many people, including activists from many parts of the world.

Ministers of the G-10 met in Geneva today (Monday 30 November 2009) ahead of the 7th Session of the WTO Ministerial conference that will start this afternoon. They assessed the state of play of the DDA negotiations and their priorities in the negotiations on agriculture.

We, Ministers of the informal Group of Developing Countries met in Geneva on 30 November 2009 on the occasion of the 7th WTO Ministerial Conference, to coordinate positions and assess the ramifications of the rapidly changing international trading environment on our countries’ interests;

On the occasion of the VII WTO Ministerial Conference, the Ministers of the G-20 met in Geneva on 29 November 2009 to discuss the state of the play of the WTO Doha Round negotiations.

International Gender and Trade Network at the WTO Ministerial in Geneva

30 Nov – 2 Dec 2009

Nothing more could attest to the failure of the neoliberal dogma than the current global crises. Pure faith in the market as the sole and most efficient allocator of resources for society has dominated all aspects of economic policy (finance, trade, investments, public services delivery) and had negative consequences on people’s lives across nations, classes, ethnicities and gender. 

As experts dissect the collapse of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Doha round of global trade talks to explain its causes and effects, many are missing how it signals a shift in the sensibilities of people everywhere to end of the era of global free trade and renew government’s rightful role in regulating commerce, especially in the critical areas of fuel, food, and finance.