MINNEAPOLIS / GENEVA - November 28 - The new World Trade Organization draft negotiating text released over the weekend fails to address inequities in international trade, according to the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP).

IATP said in a statement:

"The Doha Round has already failed because the main tools to promote development are not even on the table. The draft text is full of empty rhetoric on development. None of the proposed commitments address the bottom line: this deal will leave the world's poorest countries, and the majority of WTO members, worse off. The WTO Director-General, Pascal Lamy, is engaging in a face saving exercise because governments at the WTO have failed to create multilateral trade rules that promote development.

The draft text continues to wrongly equate greater liberalization with development, despite a growing consensus by economists that the benefits of trade liberalization have been wildly exaggerated. It is clear that for most countries further liberalization does not make sense. After 10 years, the WTO has reversed many of its original intentions, and actually increased the imbalance between rich and poor countries. This draft text continues a pattern of false assumptions and empty promises.”

IATP will publish a more detailed analysis of the draft text soon at: tradeobservatory.org.

IATP has been documenting the impacts of international trade rules on family farmers and rural communities in the U.S. and around the world for nearly 20 years. IATP’s Geneva office reports on WTO negotiations to non-governmental organizations around the world. An IATP briefing report on the Hong Kong Ministerial is available at: tradeobservatory.org.

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