The Alter-mondialist network Attac welcomes the breakdown of the WTO negotiations in Geneva today ( Tuesday 29th July) : "The end of the talks is good news. After a seven years battle it is now clear that a free trade policy that only favours the corporate interests of the north has no chance any more", said Alexis Passadakis from the Attac-co-ordination group.

The aggressive approach, in particular of the European Union and the USA is boomeranging. "German Economic Minister Michael Glos for instance was only interested in the German car industry. Social disasters due to liberalisation policies in the south, are simply collateral damage for Germany's export leadership", added Alexis Passadakis. In the USA it's a similar story. The interests of a few agro-industrial corporations carry more weight for the government than millions of small farmers in the south.

The "Doha-round" negotiations of the WTO ended today in Geneva without any results, due to a lack of consensus between USA, China and India over trade in agriculture according to AP-news. It was already clear on Monday that the proposal that WTO director General Pascal Lamy brought to the table at the end of last week, could not provide the basis for consensus.

 Attac warned, that EU and the USA may play the "blame-game" and accuse the developing countries of causing the breakdown in the talks. "That would be highly dishonest. The negotations broke down because the rich industrial nations only made demands and ignored even the most elementary needs of the developing countries such as minimum food security", explained Roland Süß from the Attac-coordination group. Developing countries had brought a detailed proposal to the table concerning special safeguard measures (SSM) that was rejected by the USA and the EU. "The deeper reason for the failure of the WTO is the obvious crisis of neoliberal globalisation, that only benefits corporations while throwing people into poverty and destroying the environment." said Roland Süß. In recent years more and more people in many countries have become increasingly critical towards "free trade".

"For social movements and critical NGO's the failure of these talks is the success of long years of intense campaigning. Now there is a window of opportunity for a change in policy towards a more social and environmentally friendly world economy", said Johannes Lauterbach from the nation-wide Attac-working group on world trade and WTO. In particular the small farmers movement of the South and trade unions - for example in South Africa and Argentina made sure, through their work, that the USA and the EU didn´t make a clean sweep with their free-trade dogma as they were able to do in the Uruguay-round.

"Now is the time to use the open situation. It is time for a democratisation of trade politics, in which all groups within society must have a voice", adds Johannes Lauterbach. It is also high time to bury the bilateral free trade discussions. In particular the negotiations between the EU and the African States dealing with extensive free trade agreements (Economic Partnership Agreements / EPAs); and the new european trade strategy "Global Europe", involving the Asian and Latin American States.

For questions:

• Alexis Passadakis, Attac- co-ordination group , Tel. 0170 - 268 4445 
• Johannes Lauterbach, WTO-WG Attac, Tel. 01577 - 183 2424
• Roland Süß, Attac- co-ordination group, Tel. 0175 - 272 58 93