![]() The most devastating outcome of MC12 for the world is the failure of WTO members to remove obstacles created by the WTO to help resolve the pandemic by adopting a comprehensive waiver of intellectual property (IP) restrictions on vaccines, treatments, and tests related to Covid-19 within the WTO’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) agreement. Using a “call and response” format they called for positive outcomes on development, access to medicines, agriculture, and fisheries, while denouncing the corporate agenda of continuing Big Pharma monopolies, fake WTO reform, and other issues. Some activists were then harassed by the police for holding banners or wearing t-shirts that called for a genuine response to Covid-19 and action to stop big fishing fleets from decimating fish stocks, even when they were standing outside of the 200-meter perimeter around the WTO.Īnticipating a hard week of talks and few potential benefits for workers, farmers, or the public interest in any country, activists with the global Our World Is Not for Sale network staged a lively “mic check” protest the first day they were allowed inside. The briefing garnered some of the only press coverage for little-known issues like WTO reform during the ministerial meeting.Ĭivil society participants in Geneva for the MC12 later held a demonstration at the Place des Nations. Fortunately, they had organized a press conference including a dozen activists from around the world to testify to the importance of the broad range of issues on the table. On the opening day of MC12, CSOs received a rude shock with the unprecedented act of being banned from the premises during a ministerial. ![]() Leading into MC12, the Our World Is Not for Sale (OWINFS) global network of civil society organizations (CSOs) held a press briefing to help journalists understand the real issues on agriculture and fish subsidies to access to medicines, development, and WTO reform that were being glossed over in the WTO’s official statements. In advance of MC12, global union federations published a united statement: the WTO Reform “should focus on inclusion: put workers’ interests first, bring corporate power under democratic control, and deliver on the development mandate agreed upon in Doha.” (It failed on all accounts.) Most of their interests were defensive, trying to deal with problems in existing WTO rules, as detailed in “ Looking towards WTO MC12: What’s on the table for developing countries and LDCs ?” Their version of WTO “reform” will facilitate the further deterioration of multilateralism and cement-in discredited pro-corporate rules on globalization.ĭeveloping countries made several key demands in advance of MC12: to put flexibility to address the global health crisis ahead of excessive protection of intellectual property rights for Big Pharma and deal with the ongoing food security crisis by adopting new flexibilities on harmful agricultural rules. The agreements should herald a warning to all: rich country governments professing new commitments to sustainable and worker-centered trade are just as likely to push anti-development outcomes and cosmetic window-dressing when it comes to protecting Big Business profits above the public interest. The spin of “unprecedented outcomes” of MC12 is a cynical ploy to paper over major differences to bolster the institution’s flailing reputation. Last week’s WTO 12 th Ministerial Conference (MC12) in Geneva concluded with pro-corporate, anti-worker, and anti-development outcomes on all major issues of access to medicines, agriculture, digital trade, and the future of the WTO itself.
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