Ecumenical Conference calls for the people-centered WTO

Ecumenical Conference on Globalising Economic Justice and Social Sustainability
December 9-11, 2005, Hon- Kong

We, 200 members of people's organizations, faith-based communities and social movements, representing all continents of the world from 29 countries, who have met in Hong Kong from December 9 to 11, 2005, to assess and protest the impact of the policies of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on the world's poor and to make recommendations to address the hardships that the WTO has created, offer this statement.

From Seattle to Cancun to Hong Kong, people from around the world have gathered in North America, Latin America and Asia to resist the WTO and its policies that are anti-people, anti-environment, and anti-life. We celebrate the victory of movements which derailed the previous WTO rounds of talks.

The policies that the WTO promotes and enforces are life-threatening to the world's poor. The suffering that results from implementing WTO trade rules, solely in capital's interest, angers us. The WTO engenders violence that consumes the lives of the poor as they struggle daily to survive.

People's food sovereignty is being undermined by the WTO's Agreement on Agriculture (AOA). Agriculture, specifically food production, has become the monopoly of large corporations which, through the current negotiations, aim at further reducing protection to farmers through tariffs or subsidies, while the rich nations use protectionism for their agribusinesses. Small farmers are affected most as they are being denied their identity, and they watch as their livelihoods are destroyed by agribusinesses and their land is given to large landowners and local elites, resulting in hunger and malnutrition in Asia and the rest of the world. Among the victims are women farmers and farm workers in India who are left with no choice but to leave their land and families and migrate to the cities to seek work. Korean farmers, as well as other farmers around the world, share a similar fate as fewer and fewer people can remain on the land. In fact, some are driven to commit suicide. We stand in solidarity with them in their fight for the right to choose how to lead their lives. Agriculture is the backbone of human history and is crucial for the survival of humankind. Moreover, agriculture is at the foundation of any culture - indeed, sustaining its existence - and the people, especially farmers and peasants, must be involved in any discussion about how their lives and culture develop.

The WTO negotiations on the General Agreement on Trade in Services, or GATS, endanger the provision of public services necessary for everyday life. Affluent countries are pushing for access to poorer countries' markets for services. Public services will subsequently be vulnerable to privatization that will surely increase their cost, putting them beyond the means of ordinary people in less developed countries. Privatization will also lead to massive labor layoffs. In addition, we reject the increasing liberalization of financial services, further destabilizing the financial system as well as the increasing privatization of pension schemes instead of promoting solidarity systems. It also degrades the service quality and exploits the grassroots. Furthermore, we reject Mode 4 of GATS that promotes the commodification of workers and does not take into account human rights, worker rights and the social cost of forced migration. As migrants are among the least protected people in society, they are among the most exposed to the exploitation of the WTO's policies implemented by exporting and importing countries.

Moreover, the demands for developing countries to lower their tariffs on manufactured goods under the proposed agreement on Non-agricultural Market Access (NAMA) removes one of the last remaining tools they have to create and protect their own industrial sector. In addition, the commodification of natural resources through NAMA undermines the values of the commons: integrity of creation, community, local wisdom and life. The costs of environmental degradation are not considered in trade negotiations and cannot be contained within state boundaries.

Our discussions confirmed that our world today is characterized by human insecurity which manifests itself in poverty, war, the violation of people's human rights, gender inequality, displacement from land and a lack of jobs, health care, education and social services, resulting in fear, silence and a feeling of vulnerability, broken relationships and communities, religious animosities, forced migration and indifference and contempt for the law. Indeed, the WTO's policies and procedures further enslave people in poverty. In short, the basis of trade should be to improve human security.

Unfortunately, those who make decisions within the WTO are removed from the people most directly affected by the outcome of their deliberations. We demand that our governments get out of the WTO and protect the interests of their people, not large corporations or business interests, for trade agreements must prioritize people's dignity and livelihood.

In this process, we are saddened by the human-made reality of poverty amidst immense wealth that is spreading throughout the world in spite of the WTO rhetoric that their policies aim to benefit the world's less developed countries and alleviate poverty. The testimonies we have heard from many comers of the world contradict this assertion.

For these reasons, we have no faith that the WTO, in its present form, can meet the aspirations of the people for a just and equitable distribution of wealth. We have even less faith that the agreements of the WTO will lead to economic justice and sustainable development for the world.

To reverse these trends, we as members of global civil society and people's movements call on our member governments to:

• Not compromise the nation's sovereignty
• Uphold the fulfilment of their human rights obligations they have made to the United Nations and international community

and the delegates to the WTO to:

• Respect people's food sovereignty and terminate the current negotiations on agriculture and the production of food
• Cease the NAMA negotiations
• Cancel the negotiations on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) regarding seeds and medicine
• Conduct an assessment of the impact of WTO agreements in the past 10 years on the world's people, especially the poor, before entering into any further trade agreements
• Increase transparency and accountability in trade negotiationsDismantle the WTO as it continues to operate solely in capital's interest