>
>Friday August 11 12:37 PM ET
>
>Report for U.N. Calls World Trade Body 'Nightmare'
>
>By Robert Evans
>
>GENEVA (Reuters) - A United Nations-appointed study team
>has labeled the World Trade Organization a ``nightmare'' for
>developing countries and suggested the body should be brought
>under the U.N.'s purview.
>
>In a report presented this week to the U.N.'s sub-commission on
>protection of human rights and made available on Friday, the
>team also dismisses the WTO's open trading rules as based ``on
>grossly unfair and even prejudiced'' assumptions.
>
>The report also calls for a ``radical review of the whole system
>of trade liberalization'' and critical consideration of whether
>it is geared toward shared benefits ``for rich and poor countries
>alike.''
>
>But although it echoes criticism of the trade body from Western
>anti-globalization groupings, the 40-page report rejects the idea
>many of these groupings promote of linking trade rules to
>human rights, labor and environmental standards.
>
>Many ``civil society'' groups in developing countries also oppose
>such linkage, arguing that it would provide Western countries
>with an excuse to put up more barriers against goods from
>poorer states.
>
>The document, a study of the effect of globalization on human
>rights, was written by two jurists, J. Oloka-Onyango of Uganda
>and Deepika Udagama of Sri Lanka.
>
>If approved by the full sub-commission, currently meeting in
>Geneva, it will be presented to the annual session of the overall
>U.N. Human Rights Commission when it holds its annual
>six-week session in Geneva in March and April next year.
>The rules of the currently 137-member WTO, the two authors
>said, ``reflect an agenda that serves only to promote dominant
>corporatist interests that already monopolize the area of
>international trade.''
>
>Human rights, they added, were given only an oblique reference
>in the founding documents of the WTO, which was launched at
>an international conference in Marrakesh in 1994 to replace the
>old General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
>
>``The net result is that for certain sectors of humanity --
>particularly the developing countries of the South -- the WTO is
>a veritable nightmare,'' the jurists declared.
>
>There was no comment on the report from the WTO, where
>senior envoys from most member states -- some 70 percent of
>them developing countries -- and officials of the Secretariat are
>on summer leave.
>
>Many Poor Countries Queuing To Join Wto
>
>But supporters of the open trading system which it oversees
>often refute such arguments by pointing to the weight of
>developing country membership and to the fact that at least 30
>more poorer economies are queuing up to join.
>
>They also say the dispute settlement system, which adjudicates
>in trade rows on the basis of the rules which all members have
>agreed to, has often found in favor of emerging economies in
>cases they have brought against big powers. In a discussion on
>the report, U.N. sub-commission member El-Hadji Guisse of
>Senegal, accused the WTO -- of which his country is a member
>-- of carrying out a ``second colonialization process in which the
>only interest was profit,'' according to a U.N. summary of his
>remarks.
>
>If the U.N. were consistent, it would oppose the existence of the
>trade body -- which is outside the U.N. system and takes its
>decisions by consensus rather than vote -- whose driving
>motivation was ``money, domination and exploitation,'' he said.
>
>Another sub-commission member, Yozo Yakota of Japan, said
>the WTO should be encouraged to enter into a relationship
>agreement with the U.N. so that its activities could be reviewed
>for compliance with international standards.
>
>**********************************
>In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is
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>
>