EU Trade Commissioner, Pascal Lamy will be in a position of awesome power when he attends the next World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in Cancun in September 2003. By then, with the accession agreements signed, he will represent the world’s number one economic power. At the Mexico meeting, he could ensure that Europe’s leadership is social as well as economic by charting a new path for a healthy, just and environmentally-friendly trade.
Until now, the US trade delegation has negotiated the rules of the game almost entirely on the basis of commercial interests. Europe has taken a wider vision. At the WTO meeting in 2001, Commissioner Lamy was personally instrumental in achieving the Doha declaration promoting access to medicines in developing countries. On environmental issues, too, he has successfully defended Europe’s position on GMO foods against US accusations that they are protectionist "barriers to trade".
But much remains much to be done. Like many others, EPHA would like to see Commissioner Lamy put the needs and priorities of citizens first. No-one is against trade and the benefits it can bring. But the rules of trade must be more purposefully adapted to the needs of communities. The current "free trade" model serves the interests of transnational corporations. It is not solving the problems of world hunger and disease nor is it making the world a fairer and safer place for future generations.
From now on, international commitments to health and the environment should come before trade rules. The benefits of trade must be harnessed to the needs of sustainable development - and wrenched from the hands of those who only pursue narrow commercial interests.
