Government preparations for the World Trade Organisation talks in Cancun, Mexico, in September were criticised yesterday as "disgraceful" by Labour's foreign affairs spokesman, Mr Michael D. Higgins.
The Dáil, he said, had little opportunity to discuss the different approaches of various Government Departments and the issues which would be at the heart of the Cancun talks.
Mr Higgins said the Government was supporting proposals to give more powers to the World Trade Organisation, although it had no mandate to do so.
"Why should the Government, representing Ireland and through the European Union, sign up to a demand that, for example, Brazilians must agree to sell their land to foreign companies?"
Mr Higgins said current unfair trade structures cost the developing world $134 billion a year, more than twice what they received in aid. "In fact, world aid in 2000 was 30 per cent less than it was in 1990."
Government representatives, he claimed, would "sail off to Cancun" with "deluded economics in one hand and a tequila in the other". He hoped, however, that a fair trade regime would emerge from the talks.
Meanwhile, a group planning to hold a "counter summit" to the World Economic Forum planned for Dublin in October, held a seminar yesterday in preparation for the event.
The Irish Social Forum says it will stage peaceful events, including a street carnival, to promote an alternative to the "corporate agenda" of the forum.
