November 2005

Pierre Johnson
Fair Trade Workshop
WSSE
Paris
France

Dear friends,

I am sending you some short and late comments on the WTO paper. Please take into account that I am not a WTO specialist. However, I am aware of some of the main issued involved in WTO and trade arguments. My comments will therefore be general, but I hope interesting and original in their last point:

- I agree in general with the paper. WTO pretends to give an "even ground", but countries from the North don't respect the principles they want other countries to follow. The level of agricultural subsidies is there to testify of this, by there daily impact for farmers in the South. WTO has won I think a Transparency International award for its communication with the public, but major decisions are still taken in the "green room".

- Development is just one issue, Equity in trade is the major issue.
Development has been the pretext for all kind of destructive measures, in particular regarding local potentials in agriculture and SMEs. A trade organization should look at equity in trade. Development is the progress of each country and culture, according to its own means and aspirations. It is something that cannot be imposed to countries.

- Trade negociations ave constantly played delayed implementation of unfair trade measure as a favour to developing countries, instead of elaborating fairer rules. But delay only means delay for the imposition of a destructive order. It doesn't resolve anything. It is also rooted in a mechanist and economicist view of development (see point above). If we have fair principles, we don't need delay for developing countries (see last point).

- Fair Trade can give the example of fair trade rules in international negotiations : calculation of costs of production and living (allowing to redefine the anti-dumping principle, and apply it at last), integration of social and environmental cost in the price of products. This makes sure that trade is enabling or at least not impeding a real sustainable development.

- WTO must be limited to negotiations on trade of goods, and submitted to global governance. WTO tends to expand its agenda beyond its legitimate area, to include issues related to development (UNDP), intellectual property (UN specialized agencies), bi passing social and environmental agreements (ILO and UNEP). Trade cannot be the supreme law.

I hope those comments will be useful to reflection of our group.

Best regards,

Pierre

Pierre William Johnson
Conseil - Etudes - Formations : Commerce Equitable - Economie Solidaire -
Developpement durable
Asesoria - Estudios - Capacitacion : Comercio Justo - Economia Solidaria -
Desarrollo Sustentable
Consultancy - Studies - Training : Fair Trade - Solidarity Economy -
Sustainable Development
Phone : +33 1 43 41 40 78
Cell : +33 6 76 76 31 90
http://pwj.free.fr
pwj@alliance21.org