ATTAC and AID/WATCH are launching the book "Behind the Scenes at the WTO" with speakers Humphrey McQueen, Reverend Ann Wannsborough, Dr Tim Anderson, and Senator Kerry Nettle ... [1pm SHARP!]

AID/WATCH in conjunction with ATTAC are launching the book to read on the World Trade Organisation (WTO), "Behind the Scenes at the WTO - The Real World of International Trade Negotiations" (by Fatoumata Jawara and Aileen Kwa). Get the low down on the WTO. Find out how the process works, what the WTO actually does and how you are going to be affected.

Speakers:

• Humphrey McQueen (Historian) - the rise of the new trading empire
• Reverend Ann Wannsborough (Uniting Care) - impacts on services
• Dr Tim Anderson (Sydney University) - Impacts of market access and food security
• Senator Kerry Nettle (the Greens) - the process of the WTO

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WTO EXPOSED!

Fatoumata Jawara and Aileen Kwa: Behind the Scenes at the WTO: the Real World of International Trade Negotiations. Zed Books, London

This immensely important book on the politics of the WTO, which lifts the lid on how the WTO really works, and what really happened before, at, and after the Fourth WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha in 2001, on the basis of interviews with 33 Geneva-based delegates to the WTO and 10 Secretariat staff members.

It reveals the systematic subversion of an ostensibly democratic system to ensure that the agreementsthat are reached are those the major powers 'primarily the US and the European Union' want, irrespective of the views of interests of most developing countries, who form the great majority of the membership.

The authors summarise:

Crucial meetings are held behind closed doors, excluding participants with critical interests at stake, with no formal record of the discussion. When delegates are, in principle, entitled to attend meetings, they are not informed when or where they are to be held. Meetings are held without translation into the languages of many participants, to discuss documents which are only available in English, and which have been issued only hours before, or even at the meeting itself. Those most familiar with issues (Ambassadors) are sometimes discouraged or prevented from speaking in discussions about them at Ministerial meetings. 'Consultations' with Members on key decisions are held one-to-one, in private, with no written record, and the interpretation left to an individual who has a stake in the outcome. Protestations that inconvenient views have been ignored in this process fall on deaf ears. Chairs of committees and facilitators are selected by a small clique, and often have an interest in the issues for which the committee is responsible. The established principle of decision-making by consensus is routinely overridden, and the views of decision-makers are 'interpreted' rather than a formal vote being taken, even in such key decisions as the selection of Mike Moore as DG and the chairmanship of the Trade Negotiations Committee. Rules are ignored when they are inconvenient, and a blind eye is turned to blackmail and inducements. The list is endless.

Any country whose political system operated as the WTO did before, during and after the Doha Ministerial where procedures were interpreted with such flexibility, rules were routinely ignored, and people or interested groups routinely used bribery and blackmail to achieve their political ends would not only be rightly condemned by the international community as undemocratic and corrupt, it would also face a real and constant threat of revolution. No developed country would contemplate running its government in this way; and yet they are happy both to exploit the system and to defend it against pressure for democratic reform at the international level.

This book is a 'must-read', not only for anyone engaged in campaigning and advocacy on the WTO and international trade issues, but also for anyone who wants to know how our world is really run, whats going on behind the headlines, and how international structures are being abused to impose globalisation on an unwilling world.

CONTENTS:

Chapter 1: The Devil You Know - an Introduction to the WTO
Chapter 2: The Battleground - the Key Issues in Doha)
Chapter 3: Setting the Stage - the Pre-Doha Mini-Ministerial Meetings
Chapter 4: A Controlled Bedlam - the Doha Ministerial
Chapter 5: Look Back in Anger - Post-Doha Reflections
Chapter 6: The Gentle Art of Persuasion - Arm-Twisting and Pay-Offs
Chapter 7: Mike Moore and the WTO Secretariat - Wolves in Sheeps Clothing
Chapter 8: Process Issues after Doha - Business as Usual
Chapter 9: The Doha Development Agenda - Everything but Development
Chapter 10: Summary and Conclusion

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