Official Statement on the 4th Annual Meeting of the TACD in Brussels, 2001

TACD, a forum of 65 US and EU consumer organizations representing some 600 million consumers, met for its 4th annual assembly in Brussels, May 2-4, 2001. The meeting was attended by leaders of all the major consumer organizations from both sides of the Atlantic, and senior government officials involved with consumer and trade policy from the EU and the US. The meeting reviewed the recent achievements of the TACD, and pursued further, with US and EU government officials, issues of high priority to consumer organizations, such as the World Trade Organization Negotiations on Services, access to medicines, GM foods, private data protection and transparency in government. TACD was formed in 1998 and in less than three years has become an important voice for promoting the consumers interest in the multilateral trading regime.

The 4th Annual Meeting in Brussels centered its discussions with governments on TACD priority issues areas, both in the plenary session and in the detailed working group discussions. The following issues were discussed, and can be found in the statement below:

• Safety and human rights of protesters in Qatar must be ensured
• Protect public services and domestic regulations in WTO services negotiations
• No GM or labelling challenges in the WTO
• Publcily developed patents for medicines must be put to public use
• Consumer rights must be protected in Hague Convention on E-commerce
• Public participation in regulatory decision-making must be assured

Safety and human rights of protesters in Qatar must be assured

Noting the lack of transparency in the operations of the WTO and the significant consumer concerns about negative impacts of WTO decisions on public health, consumer and environmental standards, TACD called for a thorough assessment of WTO performance to date before the launch of a new round in Qatar The TACD made it clear that, the choice of Doha, Qatar, as the venue for the next WTO ministerial meeting was a step backwards in the WTO's efforts to build its legitimacy and improve transparency. During the discussions both governments were not clear about practical and other facilities that would be made available for the civil society in Qatar. The Qatari government had announced that only a limited number of credentialed NGOs would be allowed into the country, with strict procedures for accreditation.

Rhoda Karpatkin of the Consumers Union of the US, told the governments, "As leaders of two great democracies, you have a special responsibility to ensure that the voices of dissent are heard. The safety and human rights of all credentialed and non-credentialed protestors must be assured." Further, TACD asked the governments to ensure that civil society had the visas, affordable housing, transportation and other practical tools needed to enter Qatar and peacefully protest and for civil society representatives be offered an opportunity to address the Ministerial. Both governments committed to follow up on this matter, and TACD welcomed the commitment of the EU to bring NGO representatives as part of their delegation, as well as plans to hold daily briefings with the NGOs in Qatar. However, the US government gave no such assurances.

Protect public services and somestic regulations in WTO services negotiations

The important issue of the ongoing WTO services negotiations was the focus of an animated dialogue with Trade Minister Pascal Lamy in the full plenary. TACD expressed its grave concern that these negotiations that were taking place behind closed doors had the potential to impact a wide variety of public services, such as health services, education and water, and domestic regulations connected to the delivery of these services. "Despite repeated assurances from our governments that we need not fear the outcome of the highly secret negotiations, we continue to see evidence of WTO staff and negotiators pursuing liberalization as an end in itself" - said Niel Ritchie of the Minnesota Institute of Agriculture and Trade Policy - "a type of holy grail that will inevitably lead us all to a rationalized, balanced and competitive global economy where almost all needs will be met by the private sector. In a perfect world this might be possible, but as we know our world is not perfect and never will be".

TACD issued a series of recommendations on this topic, calling for the right of governments to regulate in the public interest to be broadly asserted as a new article in the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). Such an article could prevent the wholesale privatisation and deregulation of government services that many consumer and environmental groups fear under the GATS. Both EU and US governments stated that no new article was necessary, that they thought that the preamble language in the GATS was sufficient for these purposes. However TACD strongly believes that this article is needed, not least because of a new EU position which calls for a 'proportionality test' (balancing regulatory goals with the objective of liberalizing trade); in addition, the EU wants language asserting that service regulations not be "more burdensome than necessary" to ensure quality of service. TACD feels great concern about any such tests that will leave to a closed WTO tribunal to decide which domestic regulations are in the public interest and which are barriers to trade.

The US government indicated at the meeting that it does not support such a necessity test - news welcomed by the consumer advocates. However, the US government does support measures that would require countries to notify and justify to other WTO governments any new service regulations that could impact trade and the government supports "cluster negotiations" in the environmentally sensitive area of energy.

No GM labelling challenges in the WTO

In the roundtable discussion with David Byrne, Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, as well as during detailed discussions with both governments in the Food Working Group, TACD pressed its detailed recommendations linked to consumer choice (labeling) and safety (approval of GM foods). Consumer advocates were encouraged by US assurances that, following the Starlink corn incident, approval would not be given for animal feed use only of GM corn, but disappointed that the US could not re-iterate its assurance, given to TACD in February 2000, that it would not bring challenges in the WTO on the issue of GM food labeling. "The Starlink incident - where corn intended for animal feed penetrated the human food chain - shows that current measures are not enough and our demands are fully justified. We therefore welcome the EU report of its follow up to the EU-US Forum on Biotechnology" stated Sue Davies of the UK Consumers Association "which amongst its 23 recommendations calls for mandatory labeling and pre-market approval. We note that the EU are keen to maintain a dialogue on this issue and look forward to a similar response from the new US administration."The EU updated the consumer representatives on its plans to review labelling of GM foods and the possibility of extending current provisions to include labelling of all GM derivatives in line with TACD recommendations. The US remained unconvinced of the need for mandatory labelling.

One of the TACD priority items for 2001 is reducing the use of antibiotics in animal and food production. In October 2000 the US proposed a ban on the use of a group of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones to treat diseases in poultry, because such use is a cause of resistant Campylobacter infections in humans. Although the EU has taken steps to control antibiotics in feed, it has not addressed the issue of fluoroquinolones to treat disease in poultry. At the May meeting, TACD called upon the EU to follow the US action. The EU responded that it was reviewing its policy on fluoroquinolones, and TACD asked the EC to report on the status of this review by October. In addition, TACD called upon the US government to follow the EU's lead and consider a broader ban on antibiotics in animal feed.

Consumer advocates were also encouraged by a commitment made by both EU and US officials to hold at least one joint meeting per year to coordinate regulatory enforcement efforts aiming at prohibiting false and misleading claims on food packages. Bruce Silverglade, of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, stated that "Multinational companies sometimes engage in the same deceptive practices on both sides of the Atlantic - it makes sense that the EU and US enforcement officials share information and coordinate their efforts to prevent fraud."

Publicly developed patents for medicines must be put to public use

On the issue of the WTO, Intellectual Property and Access to Medicines TACD welcomed progress on both sides of the Atlantic but asserted that much more remained to be done. Two of TACD's recommendations were the focus of discussion during the meeting: James Love, of the Consumer Project on Technology based in Washington D.C., asked both governments to find ways to ensure that patents developed with public monies be used in the public interest; and Ann Davison, outgoing EU Trade Chair, noted that patents for medicines such as TAXOL (an anti-cancer treatment) were developed with public monies, yet priced too high for many consumers. TACD further recommended that the US and the EU enter into agreements with the WHO and other international public health organisations, which would allow these groups to use patents developed with public funds to expand access to health care in poor countries.

In addition, TACD urged the US government to withdraw its WTO suit against a provision in Brazilian law that helps the country produce needed medicines. TACD asked the US if there was not some other developed country that has the same law. "We are told this challenge relates to a provision in Brazil's law that requires medicines producers to manufacture locally, and would not affect Brazil's successful anti-AIDS program. We believe however that a super-power pursuing a developing country, especially one that has done such an exceptional job in addressing the HIV/AIDS crisis, sends the wrong message - we urge the US to drop this suit," said Felix Cohen of the Dutch Consumer Association.

Consumer rights must be protected in Hague Convention on E-commerce

TACD called upon the delegates to the June Diplomatic Conference on the proposed Hague Convention on Jurisdiction and Foreign Judgments to protect the right of consumers to seek redress in the courts where they live, to exclude intellectual property, and to address concerns regarding unfair terms in non-negotiated contracts.

"Depriving consumers of access to their own courts in the case of cross-border disputes is effectively denying them their right to redress via the public justice system," said Dirk Klasen, of the German Consumers Organization. TACD also called upon the governments to ensure that the Hague Convention exclude intellectual property from the convention, as cross-border recognition and enforcement of Internet-based intellectual property judgments raises the prospect of reduced public rights to fair use of such property, contrary to the public interest. In addition, concerns were raised about the definition of consumer transactions in the Hague Convention, because "individuals who purchase [for example] airline tickets or computer software for business purposes under non-negotiable contract terms are not protected under the current draft Convention."

Public participation in regulatory decision-making must be assured

Just in time to impact the release of the EU White Paper on Governance due out in July, TACD sponsored a plenary forum on the topic of open government and transparency. "Any form of regulation must meet the requirements of legitimacy, efficacy, consumer confidence and coherence", said Jim Murray of BEUC, the European Consumers Organisation. "Self-regulation cannot meet these requirements. Nor will co-regulation alone, without a clear legal framework and back-up. Mandatory regulation will always be necessary in some areas. The White Paper on Governance must ensure a proper level of mandatory regulation in sensitive areas and must guarantee public participation in decision-making".

In the plenary dedicated to Open Government, consumer advocates learned about the differing systems of governance in the US and the EU and the strong laws promoting public participation in decision making in the United States. Participants expressed disappointment at what seemed to be a very qualified support for transparency in the in the presentation by Jerome Vignon, the EU Chief Advisor on the White Paper on Governance.