Study backs EU stance in Seattle talks

Date: 17/02/2000

By Gareth Harding

THE European Commission will next week seek to justify the stance it took at last December's Seattle world trade talks when it unveils the results of an independent study into the impact of the EU's trade policy on the environment and third-world countries.

The report, which has been drawn up for the Commission by a group of academics from Manchester University, concludes that the Union's approach to the World Trade Organisation talks was the least likely of three scenarios it examined to cause long-lasting damage to developing nations and the environment.

By contrast, it states, the fiercely free-trade stance taken in Seattle by some WTO members is less sustainable in the long-term. "A faster process of liberalisation, if not accompanied by considerably strengthened supporting measures, is likely to result in a much sharper division between countries and socio-economic groups into gainers and losers," it warns.

A Commission official said the study, which will be presented to non-governmental organisations in Brussels on Tuesday (22 February) "adds weight to the EU's case for labour and environmental concerns to be taken into account in world trade".

However, green groups and development organisations have reacted to the report's glowing appraisal of the Union's trade policy with suspicion. Alexandra Wandell, of Friends of the Earth Europe, claimed the university's 'sustainability impact assessment' was a "very superficial analysis of the approach the Commission took in Seattle" and accused the EU executive of using the report to "greenwash" the agenda for the next round of WTO talks.

Green groups will call for a global assessment of the impact of free trade on the environment and poorer countries at next week's meeting with Commission officials.

The European Commission will seek to justify the stance it took at the December 1999 Seattle world trade talks when it unveils the results of an independent study into the impact of the EU's trade policy on the environment and third-world countries.