Dr Lucas, who will be a member of the EU's official delegation to the
WTO Ministerial Meeting, said: "The lessons of the failed Seattle
Ministerial were that the WTO must become a fully democratic and
transparent organization which genuinely supports sustainable
development and which effectively responds to the needs of developing
countries. The insistence of the Commission on launching a new Trade
Round without having addressed these issues shows that those lessons
have not been learned. Doha therefore risks being a Seattle Mark II."

She will make the case that developing countries should have more power
in the WTO, their technical capacity needs to be funded and supported,
that their marginalisation needs to end, and that they need to be
listened to. Many have made it clear that addressing concerns about the
implementation of the previous Uruguay Round commitments should be a
precondition for a new Round. The African Group of countries have
indicated their reluctance to entertain new issues at Doha, as well as
the 'Least Developed Countries' Group, represented by Tanzania.
Jamaica's Ambassador Ransford Smith spoke for many others when he said:
"For us the resolution of implementation issues is a necessary
pre-condition and unfortunately there is very little progress there. We
do not believe that beyond the built-in agenda many issues fall into the
realm of what is possible."

Dr Lucas will go on to say "Pressing ahead with a new Round in the face
of major opposition from the majority of developing countries is
therefore not helpful. Calling it a "Development Round" is a
rhetorical sleight of hand that fails to address developing countries'
genuine concerns. Hugo Paemen, the EU's key negotiator in the Uruguay
Round put it better than I could when, with perhaps surprising candour,
he admitted that: 'The difficulty is that everybody says this has to be
the development round, but major representatives of the developing world
don't agree with starting a round'. "

Dr Lucas has signed a EU Parliamentary resolution, which:
a.. States that the current WTO objectives have to be changed so that
the over-riding principles address the issues of poverty, sustainable
development and environmental protection;
b.. Is highly critical of the dominance exerted by large commercial
organisations and their powerful lobby groups in seeking greater trade
liberalisation;
c.. Calls for an effective international treaty on corporate
accountability.

ENDS

For more information, please contact Steve Rackett on 020 7407 6280 or
0776 997 0691