WTO talks collapse said to be victory for workers

GENEVA (Reuters) - Anti-globalisation groups on Wednesdayhailed the collapse of talks on a new world trade treaty as atriumph for farmers, workers and the poor around the globe anda blow against "big business."

And even mainstream labour and farm groupings argued thatthe deal on the table at the World Trade Organisation (WTO)Doha round negotiations over the past few days was so bad thatit was just as well that it had been abandoned.

"Victory for small farmers, workers, civil society anddeveloping nations," declared the U.S.-based Public Citizengroup, which for over a decade has campaigned against the WTOand its drive to liberalise international trade.

"The mouldering corpse" of the round "should have beenburied years ago," said its trade specialist Lori Wallach.

The failure of the Geneva negotiations "is a welcomerespite for poor countries" in the face of an aggressive pushby the rich powers for more free trade despite the global foodand fuel crisis, said the Manila-based Focus on the GlobalSouth.

And the global ActionAid network said the shelving of theWTO's seven-year Doha Round was "a result of corporate greed inAmerica and Europe" encouraged by governments in the EuropeanUnion and the United States.

The package proposed by WTO Director-General Pascal Lamywould have increased problems for millions of poor people andreflected "the intransigence and insensitivity of richcountries who are not interested in the survival of smallfarmers, workers and jobs in developing countries," ActionAidsaid.

POWER AND SELF-INTEREST

That view was echoed by a religious group, the Fellowshipof Christian Councils in Southern Africa. The WTO talks, itsaid, "have been driven by power and self-interest.

"The desperate need of the most vulnerable and marginalisedpeople in our world for a trading system that could enable themto live their lives in dignity" had been lost in thenegotiations, it said.

In France, whose government had opposed EU concessions oncutting farm subsidies to meet demands from developingcountries for greater access to European markets, farmer groupsexpressed pleasure at what happened in Geneva.

The small farmers' Coordination Rurale, which has longcampaigned against a WTO deal, said it was "delighted" that itsmembers -- and workers around the globe -- would have respitefrom the threat of a free-for-all on agricultural markets.

But the president of France's big farmers' grouping FNSEA,Jean-Michel Lemetayer, said reason had triumphed because it hadbecome clear in Geneva that better-off Asian and Latin Americancountries did not want to open their own markets.

The Brussels-based global labour union body ITUC, whichdoes not oppose freer trade but argues that workers' interestsmust be firmly protected, said that to revive the Doha roundthe scope of the talks must be scaled down.

"Developed country governments have to assume theirresponsibilities to contribute some fairness to the worldtrading system and not require huge sacrifices (from poorernations) in return for minimum commitments from their side,"said ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder.