WTO urged to tread carefully on water

[unhappycamper]

http://atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/GECON-02-041213.html



WTO urged to tread carefully on water
By Carey L Biron
Dec 4, '13

WASHINGTON - As government representatives gathered on Tuesday in Indonesia for what could be final negotiations towards a global trade agreement under the World Trade Organization (WTO), environmentalists and social justice campaigners urged them to specify that water resources cannot be treated as commodities.

Critics of the privatization and "financialization" of natural resources are pointing to mounting interest by multinational investors in viewing common water resources as tradable, a change that development advocates worry could impact particularly on poor and marginalized communities.

While international agreements enshrined a universal right to water (and sanitation) in 2010, international trade agreements have yet to follow suit - a gap that some say is becoming increasingly dangerous.

"Our concern is that the financialization and privatization of water is already very much a long-term goal of major multinational companies and investors," William Waren, a trade policy analyst with Friends of the Earth US, a watchdog group, told IPS.

[Demeter]

1. But will they listen? Of course not!

Guess what the next war will be fought over?

[tularetom]

2. Only Jesus can do that

And he doesn't even have to do it carefully

[MisterP]

3. that IS the goal (Coronil, Polanyi): to reduce every flower, every species, every human,

every thought, every learning experience to its dollar value

[stuntcat]

4. k

k for the fuckedupitude