International

On Tuesday 18 October Erik Meijer, Member of the European Parliament for the SP will be in Geneva to meet top representatives of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Mr Meijer will give his views on, amongst other things, the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the single-minded neoliberalism of the WTO's policies.

Amongst those Meijer will meet will be Willy Alfaro, international director for the WTO's diplomatic relations. At 11.30 the delegation from the European Parliament's United Left Group (GUE-NGL), the political group of which the SP forms part, will hold a press conference.

Mr Meijer is going to Geneva as part of a campaign to put pressure on the WTO in the run-up to its Hong Kong summit. The question is whether rich countries have learnt anything from the last WTO round in Cancun, when developing countries successfully united to defend their interests from attempts to force them to go along with the neoliberal project of privatisation and the wholesale destruction of public services and provision.

During the Geneva WTO gathering decisions will be taken relating to the CAP, decisions which will have a major influence on the way in which these poorer countries respond. The recent gesture by the United States to effect real cuts in subsidies looks at first glance like a step in the right direction, but no action has as yet accompanied these words. The EU could already have made a start with the abolition of export subsidies.

As well as representatives of the WTO, Erik Meijer will meet a number of different social movements and NGOs.