| ||||||
|
|
There have been mixed results on the issue of WTO relations with intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Those intergovernmental bodies who have requested observer status have been granted it. The results of the first request from the secretariat of an environmental agreement for observer status the CBD should be known sometime early in the New Year. The development of the working relationship between these two institutions will be followed with acute interest by NGOs. On the other hand, the CTEs lock-out of NGOs continues. While NGOs are accredited to attend the plenary session of the Singapore Ministerial, the CTE remains a closed shop to civil society. The CTE recommends, in accordance with the July 1996 decision of the WTOs General Council, that consultations and cooperation with NGOs takes place largely at national levels, and informally through the Secretariat. This is a mistake. Consultation at the national level is in many cases woefully inadequate, and in any case does not make for a transparent international process. Without an ability to track what is happening at the CTE, NGOs, and the general public as a whole, find it very difficult to make timely and relevant inputs to the process. If WTO is indeed to help direct trade to support sustainable development, it cannot do so in the hermetically sealed box of the current CTE. The WTO, and the officials who work in it, especially in the CTE, have to be sensitized to the environment and development needs of the people they ultimately serve. This requires far more direct contact between WTO negotiators and civil society. All the experience that has been amassed on constructing sustainable development policies in fora such as the Earth Summit underlines this fact. Openness and inclusiveness are the keys to the ultimate effectiveness of the CTE. Recommendations The following specific recommendations are aimed at enabling the CTE, and the WTO in general, to work more closely with other intergovernmental bodies, national ministries and civil society, so as to make trade work for sustainable development.
|