We, women coming from different countries in the Asia Pacific region gathered here in Bali, Indonesia on the occasion of the 9th Ministerial Conference of the WTO, unequivocally declare that the just concluded WTO Bali Package is not a good outcome for women. We insist any WTO deal is a bad deal.

Since its formation, women have resisted the WTO because it channels wealth and power away from poor women and gives it to foreign governments, corporations and domestic elite. We have opposed it because it triggers land grabbing, forced evictions, exploitative labour migration, reduces food sovereignty and robs women of their livelihoods. The Bali Package breathes new life into a dying institution.

Once again the WTO ignored civil society concerns that labour rights violations, climate change, food insecurity, land-grabbing and most critically – the deepening chasm of wealth inequalities, between rich countries and poor countries, between an obscenely rich elite and the poor and between men and women are exacerbated, rather than assisted by the WTO.

The subsidies as contained in the Public Stockholding for Food Security Purposes Agreement will not reach small and marginalised farmers, and will only continue to serve the interests of large scale and corporate farmers who controllocal production and distribution of food. There is no guarantee that cheap food will be made available to populations living in poverty. Moreover with the Peace Clause and the burdensome reporting requirement, developing and least developing countries expose themselves to future litigation, fines and further incursion on pro-poor policy making. The package for the least developed countries (LDCs) consisting of Duty Free and Quota Free Market Access will not trade the products of local producers but will promote multi-national corporations’ interests to penetrate and monopolise local markets.

And while we endorse the principle that governments should have the autonomous power to manage their own food security policies, without threats and bullying from other countries, we don’t think this should be gained in a trade deal that opens up markets through increased ‘trade facilitation’. Trade facilitation is said to cut red tape, but it instead cuts poor traders out of people to people cross border trading and forces governments to re-direct funds into corporate subsidies of trade facilitation and corporate infrastructure. The digitalisation of trade does not help small scale women farmers who cross borders with their local produce, it hinders them. It simply makes trade more elitist, more designed to accommodate access to multi-nationals who will displace local producers and local markets.

Trade can be a way of empowering local economies and strengthen women’s economic autonomy. But we maintain that the WTO can never deliver justice as it is premised on the pernicious idea that the world needs increased consumption and production that profits multi-nationals. Instead women demand people centered trade where local communities and elected and people centered governments have sovereignty over their own economies.

Bali, Indonesia
7th December 2013
Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD)
AMIHAN, National Federation of Peasant Women – Philippines
AKSI! for Gender, Social and Ecological Justice – Indonesia
Cordillera Women’s Education Action and Research Center (CWEARC), Philippines
Bai – Philippines
Innabuyog – Philippines
Sustainable Development Foundation – Thailand
SolidaritasPerempuan – Indonesia
KapaeengFoundation – Bangladesh
WOREC – Nepal
National Alliance of Women Human Rights Defender – Nepal
Dharti Development Foundation Sindh – Pakistan
Save the Earth – Cambodia
Roots for Equity – Pakistan
Mugal Indigenous Women Upliftment Institute – Nepal
Leitana Nehan Women’s Development Agency – Papua New Guinea
African Women Development and Communication Network – FEMNET
Fiji Women’s Rights Organisation – Fiji
Gram BharatiSamiti (GBS) – India
Lembaga Informasi Perburuhan Sedane (SedaneLabour Resource Centre) – Indonesia
Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM)
Women Forum for Women (WOFOWON) – Nepal
The Center for Research and Advocacy, Manipur, India
Asia Pacific Research Network (APRN)
GCAP Indonesia
Labour, Health and Human Rights Development Centre – Nigeria
Institute for National and Democracy Studies (INDIES) – Indonesia
Cordillera People’s Alliance – Philippines
Medical Mission Sisisters – India
Workers’ Hub for Change – Malaysia
Indigenous Women’s Network, Thailand
Nijera Kori, Bangladesh
Center for Environmental Concerns, Philippines
Tamil Nadu Women Forum, India
Rainbow Rights Project, Inc. – Philippines
Women in Europe for a Common Future/Women International for a Common Future
Workers Hub for Change, Malaysia
National Fisheries Solidarity Movement, Sri Lanka
People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty (PCFS), Philippines
Asia Rural Women Coalition
Ibon International
Asosiasi Tenaga Kerja Indonesia / ATKI – Indonesia
GABRIELA Alliance of Filipino Women

Individual:
Titiek Kartika, Bengkulu, Indonesia
Trimita Chakma, Bangladesh
Govind Kelkar, India
Robiliza Halip, Philippines
Shimreichon Luithui, India
Jane Siwa, Philippines
Hameeda Hossain, Bangladesh
Judy M. Taguiwalo, Philippines
Kushi Kabir, Bangladesh
Thoi Tran, Vietnam
Elisa Tita P. Lubi, Philippines
Alnie G. Foja, Philippines