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Greenpeace sails to Doha to show WTO the environmental side of trade

Rainbow Warrior to serve as a platform for people who are usually never heard

Samar Kanafani
Daily Star staff
November 8, 2001

Greenpeace announced Friday its intention to go to Doha and conduct campaigns for more equitable world trade, which are planned to take place outside the World Trade Organizations Fourth Ministerial Conference in the Gulf emirate of Qatar to be held from Nov. 9-12.

The Greenpeace flagship, Rainbow Warrior, will sail to the Arabian Gulf in a few days, said representatives from the environmental watchdog at the Tawfiq Tabbara Center.

Transporting 35 environmental activists, it is scheduled to dock in Doha next Wednesday. The ship will serve as a podium for people who are usually never heard at such meetings, said a Greenpeace statement issued Friday.

Rather than aim to negotiate further trade liberalization at the conference, as the United States and European Union are eager to do, Greenpeace suggests world ministers discuss transparency, equity, and the social and environmental impact of globalization.

The new (negotiation) round is being promoted by a minority of countries which have vested interests, said Greenpeace Lebanon campaigner Zeina al-Hajj.

She added that while the US and EU equate no round with the failure of Doha, the majority of WTO member states see it a success and an opportunity to lobby for more egalitarian trade agreements.

The environmental NGO will also use its presence in Doha to call for broader accession of countries in WTO and wider involvement of participants in the organizations decision-making process.

Meanwhile, Greenpeace is also lobbying to grant environmental and humanitarian NGOs more say in WTO affairs to ensure that communities and people, whose lives are affected by trade agreements, get more representation than their states alone can give them.

Juergen Knirsch, head of Greenpeace Germany and an expert on international trade, will represent the organization at a parallel event, the World Forum on the WTO, which will be held in Beirut between Nov. 5-8.

According to Knirsch, when a developed and a developing country have in the past submitted their trade disputes for settlement at the WTO, the organization ruled in favor of the developed country.

In April, when the US demanded that Sri Lanka retract a law banning the import of genetically modified seeds, the WTO ruled in Americas favor, forcing Sri Lanka to continue importing the seeds, said Knirsch. Sri Lanka did not even file a suit against the US, a major exporter of the seeds, because it possessed insufficient financial means or political leverage to put up a fight, said Knirsch. While Hajj added that Sri Lanka would have had to pay a hefty fine in the likely chance of losing the case.

What concerns Greenpeace in such scenarios is that the WTO advocated an interest which is environmentally harmful and which Greenpeace condemns.

But in cases where both disputing countries are developed, the outcome is different, remarked Knirsch, referring to a dispute between Canada and France over asbestos, in which France came out on top.