backback ecostory Trade (WTO - ICTSD - WEF - WBCSD)
From the WTO website [some logos added]: http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/fact1_e.htm

What is the World Trade Organization?
Simply put: the World Trade Organization (WTO) deals with the rules of trade between nations at a global or near-global level. But there is more to it than that.

There are a number of ways of looking at the WTO. It’s an organization for liberalizing trade. It’s a forum for governments to negotiate trade agreements. It’s a place for them to settle trade disputes. It operates a system of trade rules. (But it’s not Superman, just in case anyone thought it could solve — or cause — all the world’s problems!)
Above all, it’s a negotiating forum … Essentially, the WTO is a place where member governments go, to try to sort out the trade problems they face with each other. The first step is to talk. The WTO was born out of negotiations, and everything the WTO does is the result of negotiations. The bulk of the WTO's current work comes from the 1986-94 negotiations called the Uruguay Round and earlier negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The WTO is currently the host to new negotiations, under the “Doha Development Agenda” launched in 2001.
Where countries have faced trade barriers and wanted them lowered, the negotiations have helped to liberalize trade. But the WTO is not just about liberalizing trade, and in some circumstances its rules support maintaining trade barriers - for example to protect consumers or prevent the spread of diseases.
  • Interview with Mr Pascal Lamy [new window]
  • "The WTO by 2022 - Ceteris Paribus"
    ICTSD - ICTSD - "International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development - News, background and other resources from coalition that seeks to bridge gap between proponents of trade and sustainable development."

    The ICTSD is the right hand of the WTO. It is one hundred percent committed to furthering trade and all its activities to protect the environment are embedded in (subservient to?) their promotion of trade.
    Wanting to "Bridge the Gap" is a factual admission that trade is incompatible with "Sustainable Development" - IF SD is understood as a way to reach a state of sustainability. However, normally SD is seen as a means to develop GDP.
    World Economic Forum's own statement on their activities and background (downloaded from the internet 2007):
    "About the World Economic Forum: Entrepreneurship in the global public interest.

    The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas. Incorporated as a foundation in 1971, and based in Geneva, Switzerland, the World Economic Forum is impartial [sic!] and not-for-profit [sic!]; it is tied to no political, partisan or national interests [sic!]. The World Economic Forum is under the supervision of the Swiss Federal Government [Who supervises what exactly?]."
    The WBCSD, also known as World Business Council for Busines As Usual - WBCBAU, are fervent believers of eternal growth, "green" of course.
    Their 2010 "Vision 2050" Report is a good example of a ludicrous outlook on the future. Nine billion people by 2050 are welcomed as an opportunity for more business growth with 2 billion additional consumers.
    This is weird thinking, Mr Stigson!
    • Some ecostories relating to the above organisations:

    08/2010 "Sustainable Development" and the WBCSD (World Business Council for Sustainable Development, aka WBCBAU)
    05/2010 Pascal Lamy: speech at the occasion of Environment Day 5 June 2010
    21/2009 The WTO on "Effort to Restart the Engine" - WTO Public Forum debate of 29 September 2009
    02/2009 nobly... vornehm... noblement... ...the world is going under. ...geht die Welt zu Grunde. ...le monde succombe.
    91/2008 The WTO on "Trading into the Future" - WTO Public Forum debate of 24 September 2008
    21/2007 Wasser als Menschenrecht - mit Member list WBCSD World Business Council for Sustainable Development
    36-2006 "Meeting of Global Growth Companies"
    25/2005 WTO challenging "barriers to trade", the environment included
    03-2004 Ein Forum für eine bessere Welt

  • Members of the WBCSD (taken from the WBSD site, November 2008)
  • Members of the WEF Die Mitglieder des World Economic Forum in 2000 ("A not-for-profit organisation") - Members of the WEF
  • Where is the World Economic Forum coming from? WEF Membership
  • "What's wrong with the WTO?
    economics
  • WTO/GATT Services Classification 1991
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