12 August 2003

The ‘Olympics’ of world trade will take place in Cancún, Mexico from 10-14 September 2003. The 5th World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial will bring together ministers from the 146 member countries, as well as protestors and campaigners from around the globe.

The meeting is of crucial importance to developing countries, as decisions made will dictate trade rules that will have a massive impact on the lives of millions of poor people.

ActionAid has an international team, with members from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe attending the meeting, some of whom will be part of official government delegations. The team will be lobbying negotiators, as well as taking part in campaigning events.

“Up to now globalisation has completely failed poor people and the WTO’s trade rules have made things worse. If Cancun fails to deliver genuine change on key issues such as agriculture and access to essential drugs, developing countries may well start questioning the existence of an organisation that seems constantly to work against us,” said Adriano Campolina Soares, head of ActionAid’s food rights campaign.

what actionaid wants from the meeting

• agriculture – rich countries must agree to slash their subsidies, while allowing poor countries flexibility to develop policies to support small-scale farmers
• TRIPs agreement (on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) – should not allow patents on life, so that farmers’ rights to save seed are protected.
• To help fight HIV and AIDS, trade rules must be suspended to give poor people access to essential medicines where lives are at stake
• proposed WTO investment agreement (one of the so-called ‘new issues’) – the UK Government and EU must drop their support for the proposed investment agreement and stop putting the interests of big business before the needs of poor countries
• WTO – must become more transparent and there must be an end to bullying and arm-twisting. 

key actionaid spokespeople

• Adriano Campolina Soares, Brazil: head of ActionAid’s food rights campaign; expert on: the impacts of free trade, agriculture, the ‘new issues’ including the investment agreement and Latin American social movements 
• Jane Ocaya, Uganda (on official Ugandan delegation): expert on: agriculture, the ‘new issues’ including the investment agreement and HIV and AIDS
• John Hilary, UK: expert on: the impact of free trade, arm-twisting at the WTO and GATS. Author of Unlimited Companies report on the proposed investment agreement 
• Pushpendra Kumar, India: expert on: agriculture, India’s resistance to the ‘new issues’, recently returned from a secondment in Brussels 
• Tim Rice, UK: expert on: agriculture, including subsidies, dumping and tariffs, the US Farm Bill and the Common Agricultural Policy; author of Farmgate report on the developmental impact of subsidies
• Aftab Alam, Pakistan: expert on: agriculture, impact of WTO rules on Pakistani farmers and GM 
• Sifiso Chikandi, Zimbabwe: expert on: the TRIPs Agreement and HIV and AIDS

other actionaid attendees:

• Matthew Lockwood, on official UK delegation
• Lanying Zhang, country director, China
• James Kintu, on official Ugandan delegation
• Moussa Faye, on official Senegalese delegation 
• Paul Kwengere, Malawi 
• Marco du Ponte, Italy
• Rick Rowden, USA 
• Anna Antwi, Ghana

uk-based media spokespeople

• Koy Thomson, international policy director 
• Helen Wolfson, food rights campaigner