Blog post: The most dangerous dog

Date: 16 March 2010

Here in the UK, the review of legislation on dangerous dogs has caught media attention – how some dogs are being bred as weapons to intimate others and at times have attacked vulnerable people like children. It’s a strange analogy, and one which I probably would not have made myself, but this morning European campaigners wanted to make a point that EU trade policy is like a dangerous dog – it’s predatory, aggressive and dangerous to the poorest people in the world.
 

The S2B group of campaigners staged a media stunt outside a trade conference on ‘EU trade policy towards developing countries’ hosted by the European trade commission. A five-metre high inflated savage dog, representing EU trade policy, was let off its lead by a giant business official, attacking victims representing small farmers, small businesses, women and indigenous people from the developing world.

 

The S2B network, which WDM is a member of, criticised the conference as a poor attempt to wrap a dangerous corporate trade agenda in development rhetoric. Current trade policies benefit European multinationals helping them to reap more profits but threaten the livelihoods of small farmers and small producers. Unsurprisingly, the conference programme lacks representatives from the sectors in developing countries who are most negatively affected by EU trade policy.

The EU has recently become much more aggressive towards developing countries and has shown that it will not hesitate in concluding a deal with the Columbian government that has been complicit in the violation of human and labour rights and is not bothered that the trade deal has divided the region.

Today’s stunt demonstrates that civil society groups around the world will continue to campaign to change this most dangerous dog.

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 Heidi Chow