Quotes

" These issues cannot, and will not, be left to meetings behind closed doors. We need a broad public debate about the way in which the trading system should develop, and NGOs obviously have a contribution to make to this debate. So, the question is not whether there should be a relationship between the WTO and NGOs, as in this excellent symposium, but how this relationship should be structured. 
In terms of future relations between the WTO, its members and the NGOs, we need to recognise that some NGOs want more transparency, participation, and influence on decision-making than some WTO members are willing to accept. But I think we should be able to move forward on the basis of two essentials:
- Responsibility. Decisions are made by governments, and responsibility for those decisions rests there, with the peoples' representatives. I have said this before: NGOs should have a voice – but not a vote;
- Openness. We must take active steps to look for processes and approaches which enable NGOs to contribute wherever useful."

" All governments need to assure that transparency also starts, like they used to say about charity, at home. Much better, in fact, to ensure that all parts of society have the chance to put their oar in at the time when each WTO member formulates its negotiating position.
Second, we need to a closer involvement of Parliaments in WTO matters, both in capitals and in Geneva. Without the first, the real value of WTO transparency will be limited."

" Who is to blame? There is enough blame for all of us to share. Perhaps we could consider new principles of engagement. A debate should be held and understandings reached between civil society, the international institutions and Governments for a code of conduct that could include:
- the rejection of violence;
- transparency from NGOs as to their membership, their finances, their rules of decision-making;
- governments, business and foundations should insist on rules of transparency and adhere to an agreed "code", before they provide funding.
Governments and their institutions should, in return, give those who follow such rules a stake in the process. And we need to accept that there is a fundamental difference between transparency and participation on the one hand and negotiations on the other — which in the end only Governments can do."

" The most dangerous misconception - at least to the extent that it is taken seriously - is that the system amounts to a conspiracy between large multinational firms and certain governments. Each of us, having had responsibility for leading the institution, finds this a notion unworthy of detailed rebuttal. It is simply not true. The WTO is an intergovernmental institution and democratic governments in determining negotiating positions must take account of interests in a multiplicity of constituencies – business, consumer, environmental, social and so on. It is for the governments to decide their national priorities. "