The Council of Canadians' Position paper on the World Trade Organization

Read the full Position Paper in PDF format.

Summary

The World Trade Organization (WTO), the most powerful international institution in the world, will be launching a new round of negotiations when its 135 member countries gather in Seattle in early December. The Council of Canadians has grave concerns about this new round and the Canadian government's position going into it.

The WTO has the power to reach into national government jurisdictions and challenge the laws, policies and programmes that interfere with trade. The WTO has the power to confer punitive trade sanctions on governments found to be in breach of WTO trade rules. These powers are both legislative and judicial and trample on the rights and freedoms of democratic societies. The only rationale for the WTO's actions is corporate-led free trade.

The method for deciding trade disputes is the Dispute Settlement Mechanism (DSM), which meets in secret, with no input from civil society. All disputes that have come before the DSM since 1995 have found in favour of transnational corporations and against public health, human rights and the environment.

Civil society groups from around the world are calling on WTO member governments to stop further negotiations, evaluate the impact that the WTO has had so far on the global environment, and reassess the utility of the WTO before proceeding with future negotiations.

This paper outlines our concerns in several key areas and states our minimum demands of the Canadian government.