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Ear to the Ground

New World Trade Treaty Plowed Under

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Posted on Jul 30, 2008
Pascal Quiet
boston.com

Sssh, No Talking: WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy arrives at the Geneva talks, which collapsed Wednesday when countries were unable to compromise over tariffs and farm subsidies.

The World Trade Organization talks in Geneva finally imploded Wednesday, as negotiations over farm subsidies and labor standards collapsed into an immovable standstill between wealthy and poorer countries. The talks, defended heavily by the “developed world,” are seen by critics as an instrument to serve corporate interests.


Reuters:

Anti-globalisation groups on Wednesday hailed the collapse of talks on a new world trade treaty as a triumph for farmers, workers and the poor around the globe and a blow against “big business.”

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

“Victory for small farmers, workers, civil society and developing nations,” declared the U.S.-based Public Citizen group, which for over a decade has campaigned against the WTO and its drive to liberalise international trade.

“The mouldering corpse” of the round “should have been buried years ago,” said its trade specialist Lori Wallach.

The failure of the Geneva negotiations “is a welcome respite for poor countries” in the face of an aggressive push by the rich powers for more free trade despite the global food and fuel crisis, said the Manila-based Focus on the Global South.

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By yellowbird2525, July 31, 2008 at 4:41 pm #

hip hip hurray! as for the countries using human waste as fertilizer better subscribe to some natural news letters such as dr mercolas; naturalliving; etc; OUR country is determined to do so; & force genetic seeds & cows, etc down our throats; almost every other country has them labeled; WE do not; notice the “lack” of fertilizer causing the “cost” of groceries to go up? USA keeps back; wanting to FORCE sludge which is left from human waste on citizens & don’t be surprized to find in bags labeled “organic”; why do you think 80,000 people in 1 city alone in S Korea took to the streets to protest importing BEEF from USA? cuz THEY know ALL our stuff is POISONED: courtesy of our Gov & FDA working for chemical & Pharma companies; deliberately deceitful targeted poisoning in every conceivable way: to make $ to doctors who have quotas to fill every month; to mega prizes for “pill” of the month for doctors; to the lawyers who are on hand to keep over 2/3s of any payouts of harmful drugs; it is a round robin of victimization, deliberate harmful acts against civilians; just found out the deoderants I have been using for years have 1 to 8 known & banned toxins in them; baby shampoos like Johnson’s contain formaldehyde & tons of other nasties; baby formulas contain growth hormones, & other toxins all courtesy of your deceptive Gov & FDA; yet, I can easily make my own shampoo using castile soap with life span of 1 year; no toxins; hundreds of life saving info KEPT from public DELIBERATELY to make the $ from us for the giant Corp’s working with Gov; and the Gov going right along with it passes law that clorox who bought Burt Bee’s (used to be organic) & others no longer have to list ingredients that do harm to humans; and we thought WE were “protected” and OUR stuff was GOOD? Worst country in the world in multiple ways; including toxic wastes for your homes to cause as much harm as it can; EUREKA! now I am discovering WHY other civilizations live far longer than those in USA; tragic really;

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By txrebel, July 31, 2008 at 12:10 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Boy, I’m Happy to see these talks collapse.  But I do not think that these world powers will concede this easily. And anyway I’m tired of these foreigh countries shipping their poison food over here.  I’m sure every one on this Blog knows many under developed countries still use human waste as fertilizer.

Hope I did not spoil your supper.

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By samosamo, July 30, 2008 at 10:47 pm #

There can never be ‘global markets’, ‘totally free trade’ or any other such garbage. It is all set up by the ‘elites’ to keep profitting from the developing nations by actually rewarding investors(speculative or futures or what have you)and nothing about improving the lot of poorer nations and peoples. It is all about hegemony for the elite’s ever and forever greed at the peoples expense. As I have recommended before a book by Mike Davis ‘Late Victorian Holocausts’ describes in a fashsion what marketers want and do. Whether it is food or oil or commodities the elites just want the money with high profits and low costs. Davis’ book also mentioned that when the indias, chinas and other less developed nations lived by the local markets that crop maintenance and production hardly failed as bad as when the empire of UK and others took over. The dry periods weren’t as bad and the famines not as severe. So yes, small local farming is a lot more stable and stronger than turning all of any commodity over to a few small owners and marketers as they will inevitably use their positions to exploit the people at every chance.
Besides, investor’s natural cut and run mentality when things look bad or some offical of another nation mentions a money altering action, a lot of investors start pulling their money out then so as not to loose and put it somewhere else that is ripe for exploitation. Just think the mexican peso fiasco in the early 90s and then southeast asia a few years later, which there has still not been a total recovery.
And above all, and not that he started it but DO NOT FORGET who signed the NAFTA treaty, William Jefferson Clinton, and a bunch of you people wanted to put hillary in office.
After all the crap the USA and UK have visited on other countries for profit, these ‘smaller’ countries are starting to have a ‘not forgetful unforgiveness’ that is justly being used. And it is a very good description of BLOWBACK.
And the above can and should be applied to our msm’s 4 to 6 owners that subvert the news and information people need.

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By LibertyWatch, July 30, 2008 at 9:50 pm #

Grow Local, Buy Local, Support Local Economies! It’s time to get the oil factor out of our lives! We do not need to ship produce around the world! We can grow food ourselves and with less petro fuel to obtain a good food product. . . Adam Smith never stated the world is a market his ideas are based on a local balance of production and consumption that allows for a society of equality in wealth an a better community in social interaction.

I do not care if _ _ _ _(fill in blanks) wants to sell a tractor in Podunk Junction, Nowhere. Corporate Amerika took all the jobs away from Americans and their families so let them drown in their greediness where that cheap labor can not afford their products either!

Grow Local! Buy Local!
PEACE by Popular Demand!

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By Improbus, July 30, 2008 at 7:25 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

“The talks, defended heavily by the “developed world,” are seen by critics as an instrument to serve corporate interests.”

Well, duh!  Anyone that doesn’t have their head stuck up a corporate sponsors ass can see the truth in that statement.

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