Brussels, 10/09/2003 (Agence Europe) - In a report published in collaboration with Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) for the Ministerial conference beginning this week in Cancun, Friends of the Earth has denounced the, "key role played by trans-national companies in the formation of World Trade Organisation (WTO)". This document, entitled, "Trade Rules: Who pays the Price?" attempts to demonstrate through the study of 8 specific cases that WTO rules on trade and investment are consistently formed in consideration of the interests of the multinationals which consolidate their global expansion and eliminate obstacles in their path. The NGO looked at Pfizer, Suez, Halliburton, Monsanto, Endesa, Shell, Philip Morris and Exxon Mobil whose interests are strongly linked to pressure groups such as the international Chamber of Commerce, the European Services Forum, the Organisation of Bio-technological Industries (OBI), CSI Coalition of Service Industries, the National Council for Internal Trade (NFTC) and the AFBF: American Farm Bureau Federation. Raul Benet, who has already getting his bearings in Cancun where anti-globalisation protesters are launching a people's counter summit on Tuesday, said that these companies "play a central role in setting the free trade agenda" by flexing their "financial and political muscles to direct the decisions of the most powerful members of the WTO: the European Union, the USA and Japan". According to Mr Benet, multinationals are essentially seeking an increase in their profits by opening up the markets and setting the rules of the game at the WTO which are favourable to trade. The report stresses that this is "bad news" for the common good and for the environment as the influence of corporations and their ties with the WTO affect "some key areas" that include food, health, environmental standards, access to essential medicines, control on foreign investment and access to essential services. The report is available at: (http://www.foei.org/publications/trade/businessrules.pdf ).