The 11th WTO Ministerial and the stakes for people’s economic rights

Now on its 11th Ministerial Conference (MC11), the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has been an institution for twenty-two years, now with 160 member countries. Despite evidence of the impacts of trade liberalisation on people's rights, the WTO continues to have an expanding mandate. Together with the rising free trade agreements, they make up a two-pronged attack with the single agenda of opening the developing world for developed countries' transnational corporations.

For the upcoming MC11, some of the issues to be settled through “consensus” include fishing sector subsidies, developing countries’ agriculture, domestic regulations for corporations, and future WTO expansion to electronic commerce.

Contents

• Introduction
• WTO and FTAs: Two-pronged attack with one agenda
• Buenos Aires Issues: Potential setbacks for people's rights in trade and investment
  • Further defeats in developing countries' agriculture demands?
  • Fishing subsidies: rights of small-scale fisherfolk at stake
  • Return of the Singapore issues?
  • E-commerce and the trade liberalisation of the future: at expense of right to development
• Towards People-centred trade and investment institutions