[CTC] Urgent: Request for Endorsement: Stop Trade Negotiations During Coronavirus!

[Deborah James]

** Request for organizational endorsement  **

 

Dear Friends, 

 

Despite the overwhelming need for governments around the world to focus their full efforts on saving lives during the coronavirus pandemic, some governments are still pushing forward negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO) as well as in bilateral and other trade negotiations. 

 

We are calling on governments to: “Stop all trade and investment treaty negotiations during the COVID-19 outbreak and refocus on access to medical supplies and saving lives.”

We are further calling on governments to: End unilateral sanctions; ensure that countries have the flexibilities to set aside trade rules that constrain their ability to resolve the pandemic; and to re-think of the types of rules that are negotiated in trade agreements, including those that can encourage monopolies and reduce affordable access to all forms of medical supplies, and put at risk the lives of people in every country of the world.

PLEASE register your ORGANIZATIONAL endorsement here BY midnight in Washington, DC on Wednesday April 29th, if you have not already: https://form.jotform.com/200974262608356. Thursday, April 30th, we will send the final letter to WTO delegations in Geneva, and send it to our media contacts. We will also send all endorsers a final copy of the endorsed letter that day. My apologies that this is getting to many of you so late. 

Thank you,

Deborah James for 

Our World Is Not for Sale (OWINFS) global network

 

US organizations endorsing the letter as of April 28:

354Citizens Trade CampaignUnited States
355Columban Center for Advocacy and OutreachUnited States
356Institute for Policy Studies, Global Economy ProjectUnited States
357National Family Farm CoalitionUnited States
358Public CitizenUnited States
359The Oakland InstituteUnited States

Some background: (A memo is attached which details why negotiations are inappropriate at this time). 

The WTO actually convened a meeting on April 17, to discuss whether to hold negotiations on a virtual basis. We sent an early version of the attached letter with the endorsements we had as of that date, and heard from many WTO delegations that it did have an impact on the meeting. Many countries argued against holding talks on binding rules at this time, and especially virtually, but some argued in favor of continuing with business as usual. Unfortunately, rather than acknowledging the lack of consensus to negotiate, the Director General stated that he would continue consultations – seemingly intending to pressure countries to agree to negotiate on a pre-Covid liberalization agenda, when they should be focused on saving lives. You can see press coverage of the meeting here and here. The possible date of another discussion on the subject has not yet been announced, so we have to do all we can to solidify opposition among as many delegations as possible. 

Based on this outcome, we are expanding our outreach to invite more organizations to oppose negotiations in the WTO during the pandemic. 

According to this media coverage, the US position is as follows: 

“The US, which spoke after these four countries, delivered a nuanced statement saying that the US is comfortable with the convening of informal meetings and virtual meetings which are feasible and appropriate, said trade envoys, non-attributively.

US Ambassador Dennis Shea said it “would be premature to look for horizontal process at this point of time (as) that can create unnecessary problems at this juncture,” said several trade envoys.

As for taking decisions, Ambassador Shea said the US doesn’t have a clear view on how to conduct work by remote engagement, including the decision-making process, said trade envoys, who asked not to be quoted.”

 

 

--

Deborah James

Our World Is Not for Sale (OWINFS) network

www.ourworldisnotforsale.net

 

Director of International Programs

Center for Economic and Policy Research

1611 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 400, Washington DC 20009

+1.202.441.6917

www.cepr.net 

 

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.citizenstrade.org/pipermail/ctcfield-citizenstrade.org/attachments/20200428/1a1558a7/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Letter-StopNegotiationsFocusOnSavingLives 2020-04-28.ENG.docx
Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
Size: 56135 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.citizenstrade.org/pipermail/ctcfield-citizenstrade.org/attachments/20200428/1a1558a7/attachment-0002.docx>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Background-WhyStopNegotiations.docx
Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
Size: 71612 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.citizenstrade.org/pipermail/ctcfield-citizenstrade.org/attachments/20200428/1a1558a7/attachment-0003.docx>