Geneva, Switzerland–Today, a group of civil society working together through the global Our World Is Not for Sale (OWINFS) network, present in Geneva for the 12th Ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO), use the human amplification tactic of “Mike Check” to voice their concerns about the WTO negotiations. Text of the chants is included below.
On the TRIPS waiver on intellectual property rules to save lives during the Covid pandemic, civil society leaders urged countries to reject the counter-proposal and onerous new TRIPS+ provisions which would actually add new obligations to TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) on developing countries rather than save lives.
They also demanded a permanent solution to public stockholding, so that developing countries can achieve food security through increased production. They urged delegates to reject the anti- development fisheries text that is on the table, and to start again with a pro-development proposals. And they condemned the Green Room tactics and false promise of “WTO Reform” which is actually a developed country agenda to abandon multilateralism, consensus, and development architecture of the WTO. See https://ourworldisnotforsale.net/MC12 for analysis.
A facebook live video is available here: https://www.facebook.com/owinfs
Free-use photos available here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1vAIVUQzHxymQml4NDnk2bu7-17LWVTgW
Over 50 civil society experts – trade unionists, farmers, development advocates, and consumer activists – from more than 2 countries have traveled to Geneva for the 12th Ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) as part of the global Our World Is Not For Sale (OWINFS) network. Civil society delegates are at the WTO from: India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Philippines, Pacific Islands, Ghana, Malawi, Morocco, South Africa, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, USA, Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, and the UK.
Groups put an NGO statement on the WTO decision to retract their previously granted access to the Ministerial Conference on its opening day on 12 June 2022. Their press conference on 12 June can be viewed here. And a media availability list of NGO experts, many of whom are in Geneva for MC12, is available here. These and many other documents of analysis by CSOs are available here: https://ourworldisnotforsale.net/MC12.
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Embargoed Until 10am, June 13, 2022
Contact: Deborah James +12024416917, djames@cepr.net