WTO

World Trade Organization Centre William Rappard, Rue de Lausanne 154, CH-1211 Geneva 21, Switzerland
www.wto.org

Dear WTO and Members of the WTO,

I am addressing the WTO as both an institution and as a group of individuals who probably aren’t so different from myself. I am sure you are a group composed of individual mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers who care about the future of the world.
I recently visited the WTO website. On the WTO Trade Topics drop-down menu, I was disappointed to find that there was no topic labeled “World Consumer Protection”. I was surprised to see that there was a topic labeled “Environment”, but when I clicked on it, I was disappointed to see that the introductory sentence to the Environment page was “The WTO has no specific agreement dealing with the environment.” Why can’t an institution with the WTO’s power create such an agreement?
I am just one citizen in one country of this large world. I hope the WTO can understand how small and helpless I feel while the members of the WTO are off signing deals that are going to have a profound impact on me and every other member of every species in this world. In my own country, I can feel pretty helpless, but at least the American government is one institution that allows me to vote for some of its members. From what I can tell, the WTO employs people that I was never allowed to vote for, yet these members construct deals that to me appear to undermine the sovereignty and social/environmental security of the nations of the world.
Although I cannot vote for any employee of the WTO, I want the members of the WTO to know that the people of the world are watching the WTO’s activities, and we are not often pleased by what we see. It is of course true that the WTO has no legal obligation to represent the billions of people of this world in any specific way, but doesn’t the WTO have a social obligation? An ethical obligation?
As a citizen of this world, I want to see a WTO that puts sustainability and the health of all species on this planet before the priorities of profit gain and bottom lines. I want to see a WTO that represents the interests of all citizens and species of this world, not just the interests of wealthy corporations and governments.
Will the legacy of the WTO leave a bitter taste in billions of mouths across this earth? Will we even live to taste that bitterness?
I understand that in a big institution like the WTO, it is probably quite difficult (possibly frightening) for the individual reading this letter to make any large changes. There are always governments, special interest groups, and profit models putting pressure on the international economic institutions. However, I truly believe that if every mother, father, sister, and brother that works for (or is a member of) the WTO would have the bravery to unite, a change could be made.
I will post a copy of this letter to the WTO on my blog, which can be found here: http://windofourlittlewings.blogspot.com/ , so that I can share our correspondence with the people I know. I am grateful that a large institution like the WTO has posted an address for people to write to. Please respond to me at loretta.fisher@gmail.com. Please do not send me insincere pre-planned responses or one-sided propaganda. I want to see that the WTO intends to do something genuine and beneficial for this world.

Please be wise and brave enough to make change.



Loretta Fisher