"WTO is not only for the rich"

..... Most of you are familiar with the hardship that protectionist strategies, such as for example the US Marine Mammal Protection Act, imposes on our indigenous societies ...... We base our harvesting of the natural resources on the principle of sustainability. It is therefore incomprehensible to us why politicians and legislators far away - and often ignorant of our lifestyle - feel so strong about imposing such regulations. We must now demand international protection of the indigenous peoples' trades and industries and of the access to the world market for the products from these. World Trade Organisation (WTO) and World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) are not only for the rich and developed countries - they are organisations which protect all of us against unfair trade and treatment. With the UN Decade for indigenous peoples, the opportunity is there to protect all of us against unfair trade and treatment ............