PGA Archive:
29 November-3 December 1999, Seattle, USA: 3rd WTO Ministerial Conference
The Third WTO Ministerial Conference is expected to take a number of important decisions, including:
- launching a new round of negotiations within the WTO system to further liberalise trade and investment;
- expanding the TRIPs (Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights) agreement (which forces countries to give patent rights over life forms to multinationals);
- discussing the Agreement on Agriculture, further worsening the plight of small farmers; and
- incorporating into the WTO regime the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) that failed in the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development - a club for the 29 richest countries)
Only a massive worldwide outcry against these policies can stop this onslaught on the lives of millions of people. The second PGA conference will provide a good opportunity to strengthen the awareness of peoples' movements of the issues that will be discussed at the WTO III conference. In Bangalore time will be available to discuss and plan a concerted campaign against the WTO and its proposals.
One idea suggested already has been to have a second Inter-Continental Caravan mainly of representatives of Latin American movements which would travel though the USA ending at the WTO III conference. This will be discussed further at the conference.
Your ideas and suggestions for actions worldwide are most welcome; please send them to agpweb (AT) lists.riseup.net or fax them to ++41-22-940 20 70.
see also: http://members.aol.com/mwmorrill/pga.htm (PGA in USA)