Press Release
For immediate use: Sunday 11 November
Doha number-crunching reveals heavyweights EU and US overwhelm poorest countries
The World Development Movement today revealed that the EU has a massive 502 people in its delegation at the World Trade Organisation Ministerial meeting in Doha, Qatar. This compares with Maldives with two, St. Vincent with one and Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere, with no delegate at all.
WDM also calculated that the two richest delegations, the EU and the US, representing approximately 10% of the world's population have total combined delegation of 553 compared with a total combined delegation of just 92 for China and India representing over 40% of the world's population.
The total number of delegates from the G7 nations in Doha (481) is almost twice the negotiating strength of the combined delegations of the 39 Least Developed Countries (276).
Barry Coates, WDM's Director, said: "The vast disparity in the sizes of delegations is yet another indicator that the odds are stacked against the poorest nations in the negotiations at the Doha Ministerial. Combined with the deeply unfair negotiations process, the developing world has little chance to achieve fairer trade rules.
More follows
In Seattle, the EU tipped the scales with an almost unbelievable 594 on its delegation. This was condemned as a mismatch too far. Some compared it to putting Mike Tyson into the ring with a small boy. Despite appeals to developed nations to scale down their delegations, the EU has again turned up with an overweight team in Doha. Yet NGOs are only allowed one person per organisation." ENDS
WDM's Doha Delegate Count Belgium 32 Denmark 43 Germany 43 Greece 15 Spain 22 France 75 Ireland 22 Italy 47 Luxembourg 8 Netherlands 31 Austria 17 Portugal 12 Finland 23 Sweden 21 UK 35 EC 32 EU Parliament 24 Total for all EU = 502 Note: Includes some NGOs and Parliamentarians on delegation.
Total for US delegation = 51
Total of delegations for the thirty nine LDCs = 276
Contacts: Barry Coates in Doha on +44 7702 236 418 (UK mobile) or 5392710 (Qatari mobile) or email barrycoates_wdm@yahoo.com
Dave Timms (WDM Press Officer) in Doha on +44 7711 875 345.:
