Posted on December, 01 1999

Seattle, USA - As protest against the impact of WTO rules on environmental policies and the poor sparked violence in Seattle streets, WTO members moved towards agreeing a text which will undermine an important international environmental agreement, WWF, the conservation organization, said here today.

Under sustained pressure from the United States, the European Commission has proposed immediate establishment of a working group on biotechnology. This would effectively transfer negotiations on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) from the Biosafety Protocol to the WTO. Liberalizing trade in GMOs will then take precedence over managing the environmental and health risks associated with their production and use.

"Even as political leaders express sympathy for the concerns of protesters in Seattle, proposals are advanced by trade negotiators that fly in the face of those concerns," said Charles Arden-Clarke, Head of WWF International's Trade and Investment Unit. "The WTO has neither the mandate, the competence, nor the public trust to work on this controversial issue."

If this biotechnology working group is established, it is likely to fatally undermine negotiations on the Biosafety Protocol, which was due to be concluded in January next year. Exporters of biotechnology products will use the existence of the WTO working group to argue that the Biosafety Protocol negotiations should be suspended until the WTO has clarified its rules on the issue.

The EC proposal to create the biotechnology working group appeared only two weeks after a majority of EU member states agreed that creation of such a working group in the WTO at Seattle would be very badly timed. WWF feels EU members should reject the proposed Commission text as an unacceptable compromise.

At the same time it appeared that WTO members had agreed to place the issue of environment into a working group containing the other controversial issues of competition and investment. This sidelines the issue into a dead-end of set of negotiations that at best will proceed slowly, and may not conclude at all. Furthermore the working group will be chaired by New Zealand, the WTO member which in February 1996 derailed EU efforts to secure a WTO exemption for trade measures used to implement multilateral environmental agreements.

"Once again WTO negotiators are sacrificing public concerns to narrow economic interests," added Mr. Arden-Clarke. "Environment, health and safety are not an extra option, but a cornerstone of a legitimate trading system. Governments must understand this was a key lesson to learn from the protests today in Seattle, and move these issues back up the negotiating agenda."

For further information, please contact:

Charles Arden-Clarke in Seattle: tel: +1 206 794 25 28 ;

Kyla Evans in Seattle: tel: + 1 206 794 24 06