September 5, 2003

For Immediate Release:

Contact: Ben Lilliston, 301-270-4787, blilliston@iatp.org

After September 7, in Cancun: 044 998 860 66 32

Minneapolis - Staff from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy will travel to Cancun next week for the World Trade Organization's Fifth Ministerial to press negotiators to adopt fair trade rules that improve prices paid to farmers.

In Cancun, IATP will host three concurrent events at the WTO Cancun meeting - the International Fair Trade Fair, a Sustainable Trade Symposium, and the Fair Trade in the Americas Forum. WTO ministers have been invited to attend and learn first-hand how Fair Trade is keeping communities alive during the two-year record low in world market coffee prices. Artisans and farmers from 20 countries, producing everything from Brazil nuts to textiles, will demonstrate how Fair Trade rules have worked to strengthen their communities.

"There is a real opportunity for the WTO and the U.S. government to incorporate Fair Trade principles in developing new trade rules," said IATP President Mark Ritchie. "The Fair Trade movement has flourished largely because the WTO-driven, free trade model has failed to respond to the needs of poor countries."

On the WTO's agenda are a series of critical issues for farmers. IATP has highlighted some of the key areas of negotiation in a series of six new white papers now available at: www.tradeobservatory.org. Negotiations at the WTO have stalled as countries try to reach agreement on new agricultural trade rules.

New IATP White Papers related to the Cancun meeting are:

• United States Dumping on World Agricultural Markets
• World Trade Organization Agreement on Agriculture Basics
• The WTO Services Agreement: Possible Impacts on Agriculture
• WTO Decision-Making: A Broken Process
• The TRIPs Agreement: Who Owns and Controls Knowledge and Resources
• Water Services Under the World Trade Organization

IATP has been monitoring the impact of the WTO and international trade rules on family farmers in the U.S. and around the world for 15 years. To follow events in Cancun, go to IATP's web site: www.tradeobservatory.org

For more information about Fair Trade events in Cancun, go to: www.fairtradeexpo.org.

To reach IATP experts in Cancun monitoring the negotiations, contact Ben Lilliston at: blilliston@iatp.org - and on his Cancun cell at: 044 998 860 66 32