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I originally intended to transmit today
an upbeat report
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on some new technologies that affect
agribusiness in a global sense.
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Instead, I find myself the messenger
of some rather disturbing news.
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The WTO will be issuing
a public statement
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in detail by the end of the week.
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But the die has been cast.
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As of September 2002,
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having seen the effects of policies
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whose only intent was to bring
greater prosperity and peace,
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the World Trade Organization,
in its present form, will cease to exist.
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Over the next two years,
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we at the WTO will endeavor to re-found
our organization along different lines,
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based in a different understanding
of the purposes of world trade.
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The new organization will have
as its foundation and basis
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the United Nations'
Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
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upon which we feel
we can make a good foundation
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to ensuring that the organization
will have human
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rather than business interests
as its bottom line.
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My reaction was one of total surprise.
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We were expecting
a speech more based
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on what the World Trade Organization
does in its relation to Australian trade.
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It sort of blew me out of the water
when the announcement was made
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that the World Trade Organization
is significantly reinventing itself
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to focus on issues relating to people
as opposed to economics...
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something that hopefully could be
of significant benefit
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to the poor and needy throughout
the world in all developing countries.
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The U.N, estimates that poor countries-
the poorest countries in the world...
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lose approximately $2 billion a day
because of unjust trade rules,
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many of them instituted
by our own organization.
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And this is 14 times the amount
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that they receive in aid
from developed countries.
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I thought the speech itself was compelling
in terms of its information.
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I was astounded to find that they're
actually gonna dismantle the WTO.
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I was also amazed to see that there was
a mission that perhaps had failed.