Speech by Rhoda Karpatkin

Rhoda Karpatkin
President, US Consumers Union

Thank you very much. I am very aware that I am the seventh speaker this morning and I admire your patience. I'll try to be brief.

When we held our first meeting in Washington last year, there were many people who doubted that anything could come of it. There were good reasons to have such doubts. There was no tradition of a transatlantic consumer organisation. There was no existing process for American consumer groups to resolve any differences they had. We heard very harsh words from Ralph Nader at the start of the first Dialogue. Those people who had doubts were justified. But those doubts can now be put aside.

As you can see, the TransAtlantic Consumer Dialogue is clearly established.

The Americans in the TACD represent a broad spectrum of the consumer movement, and that is true of Americans on the TACD Steering Committee as well. Now that our efforts to organize have been productive, we need to see the results of participation. It is now fair to test if the governments represented here will deliver those results. We see and appreciate the physical facts of Dialogue - we are all in the same room and we are talking to one another. What does it mean? There are important questions for the governments here:

1. What are the policy outcomes of this participation? Will government representatives at global bodies conduct themselves differently, speak differently? Will they integrate consumer viewpoints into their representation? For example, I listened carefully to Deputy US Trade Representative Susan Esserman on GMOs. Perhaps I missed it, but there was no sign that she recognised or respected the consumer point of view on GMOs, and this was, of course, very disappointing to me. This is a critical test. It goes to the heart of what we are doing here.
2. In a speech by President Clinton in May 1998 on the 50th Anniversary of the WTO, he said `The WTO was created to lift the lives of ordinary citizens; it should listen to them.' He also said `We must build a trading system for the 21^st Century that honours our values as it expands opportunity. We must do more to make sure that this new economy lifts livings standards around the world... We should level up, not level down.' He rejected a `race to the bottom in environmental protections, consumer protections and labor standards.' How are governments planning to implement this for the 21^st century or even for the remaining months of the 20th century? What concrete steps will breathe life into Mr. Clinton's compelling words?
3. Both the EU and the US have affirmed their support for a sustained TACD and have made that support tangible by their presence here. They showed their support last year by funding the creation of the Consumer Dialogue. Now, the critical question is: will they show support for the continuation of the Dialogue by providing the financial support that is necessary to sustain it? We have part of the answer from the EU. What is the answer from the US? No Dialogue is possible without financial support for the US organisations that need and want that support and for a Secretariat to provide the necessary infrastructure. Who in the US government has the responsibility to ensure this continuation, what steps will be taken, where is the accountability? We are waiting to hear.
4. At this meeting we will see considerable effort by the working groups. Quite a lot of work has been done already, and this has been acknowledged in the speeches this morning. This work represents considered substantive input from the TACD on very specific issues. The input will be in writing. How can we track the consideration of these papers by the appropriate government authorities? How can we track the evolution and changes in government policies resulting from our work? Will we see a reconstruction of government trade policy to incorporate consumer, environmental and labor needs as President Clinton has said? Will we see this reconstruction applied to the thorny issues that the Business Dialogue has identified as its key issues and thus far has prevailed on?

Until now, trade policy has been a playing field with one player - business, and with government its sometimes virtual partner. Still, consumer groups have felt encouraged by the steps already taken by governments to create a different field, possibly with several players. We felt encouraged by some of the discussions we had with governments at various meetings. All that can be described as a good beginning to what will surely be an important journey in policy making. Now, we must get on with that journey. Consumers are committed to making this process successful and we have shown that. We look forward to an equal commitment from the governments involved.