Meeting here in Bangkok and coming from different countries in Asia and elsewhere, and comparing the experiences of our economies and people; listening to the stories and cries of farmers, women, indigenous peoples, fisher folk, the urban poor and slum dwellers of Thailand, and hearing similar stories from India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, the Philippines and Sri Lanka; we are struck by the commonality of the consequences of debt and the globalization of the economy on our societies and on nature.

We note that the trade liberalization policies pursued by the World Trade Organization (WTO) contributed significantly to the following results:

Growing impoverishment and discontent among the majorities of people in these countries.
Increasing inequality in income distribution within countries, which is masked by the economic statistics that indicate economic recovery, but do not show how the urban poor and rural communities were pushed even further into misery and despair, carrying the burden instead of the affluent sectors of society and business.
Feminization of poverty as demonstrated in Korea and Thailand, the increased exploitation of child labour and sex trafficking of children, casualization of labour as in Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.
Accelerated destruction of environment and ecological systems particularly affecting livelihood and health of the rural poor and threatening the food security of countries as a whole, as in the case of small fisher folk and small farmers of Thailand.
Trade liberalization exacerbates the culture of consumerism and threatens the very survival of the extremely precious, diverse and ancient cultures and religions of the Asian region.

We also note that the WTO is essentially dominated by the US and other industrial countries. The rules and standards applied by the organization are biased against developing countries and the poor, which despite their majority in number, have little say.

Imposing US American concepts, eg, intellectual property rights, legal systems, and accounting regulations, will lead to the death of diversity, which in fact is the source of life for the future survival of our global community.

In its forthcoming ministerial round in Seattle (November 30 to December 3 1999), we strongly urge the WTO to:

Respect the economic sovereignty of all nations (states and peoples). They must have the right to determine the level and type of their integration into the global economy.
Recognize and respect the non-reciprocal character of trade relationships between developed and developing countries.
Respect international instruments for environmental protection and the rights of indigenous peoples to maintain their way of life in their natural environment.
Impose a moratorium on the further expansion of the powers and activities of the WTO in order to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the impact of its activities, including the possibility of dissolving the WTO.

The symposium was jointly organized by the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, the World Council of Churches, the Christian Conference of Asia, the Church of Christ in Thailand, and the Asian Cultural Forum on Development. It was attended by over 60 people from various sectors of society in Thailand and from 19 other countries, namely, Canada, China, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, the Netherlands, the Philippines, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Uganda, and Vanuatu.