Archive - 2015 - Signon Statement

As members of 453 civil society organizations including trade unions, environmentalists, farmers, development advocates, and public interest groups from over 150 countries, we are writing today to express extreme alarm about the current situation of the negotiations in the WTO. We urge you to take seriously the need for the upcoming Nairobi Ministerial to change existing WTO rules to make the global trading system more compatible with people-centered development, and to forestall efforts by some developed countries to abandon the development agenda and replace it with a set of so-called “new issues” that actually are non-trade issues that would impact deeply on domestic economies and constrain national policy space required for development and public interest.

341 organizations of civil society from over 100 countries of the global North and South, as consumer groups, environmentalists, trade unions, farmers, and other development advocates, have sent a letter to WTO members regarding the wrong direction of the current WTO talks, and urged the governments to substantially turnaround the negotiations in advance of the December Ministerial in Nairobi.

Civil Society Letter to Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO): Request by least developed country members for an extension of the transitional period with respect to pharmaceutical products and for waivers from the obligation of articles 70.8 and 70.9 of the trips agreement