Doha, 13 November 2001
WTO runs aground on Doha peninsular - Greenpeace calls for intergovernmental transformation conference

If the World Trade Organisation (WTO) had sailed with Greenpeace on board the Rainbow Warrior the captain would have shown the organisation that it is impossible to sail without a radar.	Rainbow Warrior arriving in Qatar. © Greenpeace

With respect to the TRIPs agreement and access to medicine, the fundamental right to stay healthy should never have been the subject of horse trading.

The WTO has been blind and deaf for too long. The mark of a
good leader is vision and the ability to listen. The WTO has failed
the leadership test.

After Doha, anyone with common sense will now agree that the
multilateral trade and finance system needs to be fundamentally
transformed. The WTO, World Bank and the IMF have all failed to
promote sustainable development. What is needed now is action
and not empty words.

We call on the international community - governments,
intergovernmental organisations and non-governmental
organisations - to work together to achieve fundamental changes.

We urge governments to demand and organise an Intergovernmental Revision Conference of the multilateral trade and finance institutions, with a mandate to transform the WTO, the World Bank and the IMF, for the true benefit of people
and the environment. This Conference should be held under the auspices of the United Nations.

The environment, sustainable development, and the
resources necessary for developing countries must become the
central goals of the new institutions.

To this end we propose that this Intergovernmental Transformation Conference takes place shortly after the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) scheduled to take place in Johannesburg, South Africa, in September 2002.

This is the second WTO shipwreck. Who is on the bridge?

View pictures from the Rainbow Warrior during the meeting.

Read Greenpeace Canada campaign director, Jo Dufay's, update from the WTO meeting today.

For more sound interviews from the see http://www.greenpeace.org/politics/no-wto/doha/

No New Round Radio webcast - Tune in NOW!
The No New Round (at the WTO) webcast is now broadcasting. On 10 November 2001, Greenpeace and Indymedia will webcast from the Greenpeace flagship, Rainbow Warrior, in Doha. More >

More information:

The report “Safe Trade in the 21st Century: the Doha Edition,” contains the full Greenpeace recommendations - “The Greening of Doha”. To read the report in English, Arabic, French or Spanish click here.

Greenpeace critique of the Draft Ministerial Declaration released by the WTO on 27 October 2001 and Greenpeace’s proposed alternative.

Greenpeace International Executive Director, Gerd Leipold, statement on a new global security.

Press contacts:

Remi Parmentier, Greenpeace International: + 34 637 557 357 or + 31 653 504 702.

Tony Juniper, Friends of the Earth International: + 44 7712 843 207.

Aimee T. Gonzales, WWF: + 41796927973 or + 934 5391832.