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STOP THE NEW ROUND COALITION: PRESS STATEMENT on the Collapse of the DOHA Round PDF Print E-mail
30 July 2008

Stop the New Round Coalition calls the collapse of Doha trade talks a welcome respite for poor countries.

The collapse of the Doha Trade talks in Geneva yesterday over disagreementson agriculture subsidies and food tariffs is a welcome respite for poor countries like the Philippines.
In the end, the ambition that has been driving these talks since the Doha
round was launched in 2001, became too much and the aggressive push by the
rich countries led by the US and the EU for more trade liberalization at a
time of global crises of food and fuel too blatant for developing countries
to stomach.

The talks have collapsed because developing countries gave more importance
to protecting and supporting its agriculture and industries rather than
being hi-jacked into a bad deal that would limit their development options.

The talks have collapsed because the peoples' resistance to the Doha round
and to unfair and unjust trade made their collective voices heard throughout
the globe.

In the wake of the collapse, we expect the machinery of the "free trade"
dogma to spin the news in order to shift the blame to developing countries.
We will hear lamentations about the lost opportunity for poor people with
the failure to secure a deal.

We say, developing countries should take the credit for the collapse of an
extremely bad deal that would have been detrimental to their own interests.

Now is the time to seriously think outside the WTO-box and move towards an
alternative global trading system that puts poor peoples' interests at the
center.#



Contact: Joseph Purugganan- /09173874531
 
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