Fw: restoring the WTO's momentum (fwd)

-----Original Message-----
From: Sarah van Gelder <svangelder@futurenet.org>
To: dkorten@bainbridge.net <dkorten@bainbridge.net>; bhill@igc.org
<bhill@igc.org>
Date: Friday, April 07, 2000 17:17
Subject: restoring the WTO's momentum


>Progressive Review,ssmith@igc.org,inet writes:
>AN ACTIVIST AMONGST
>THE ROBBER BARONS
>
>[Bruce Silverglade of the Center for Science in the Public Interest
managed
>to get himself invited to a day-long high-level seminar on "After
Seattle:
>Restoring Momentum to the WTO." Speakers included Clayton Yeutter
(former
>Secretary of Agriculture), Robert Litan (former Associate Director of
the
>White House Office of Management and Budget), Lawrence Eagleburger
(former
>Secretary of State), and Luiz Felipe Lamreia, the foreign Minster of
Brazil.
>His fly-on-the-wall report is worth quoting at some length]:
>
>I was disappointed that only one representative like myself from a
>non-profit organization concerned about the impact of the WTO on food
safety
>regulation was invited.  But I was pleased that the door had been
opened and
>I looked forward to [it].
>
>  . . . As it turned out, I got a lot more than I bargained for.
The=
> seminar
>~ turned out to be a strategy session on how to defeat those opposed
to the
>current WTO system.  Apparently, no one knew who I was (perhaps my
graying
>temples and dark suit helped me blend in with the overwhelming older
male
>group of attendees) and I did not speak up until the end of the
meeting.
>
>The meeting was kicked off by a gentleman named Lord Patterson who
was
>Margaret Thatcher's Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. He
began by
>stating that our number one job is to restore confidence in the WTO
before
>embarking on any new rounds of trade negotiations.  So far, so good,
I=
> thought.
>
>But he then proclaimed that non-profit groups have no right to
criticize the
>WTO as undemocratic because the groups themselves do not represent
the
>general public. (I wondered which groups he was talking about because
>organizations that are gravely concerned about the impact of the WTO
on
>environmental and consumer protection, like the Sierra Club and
Public
>Citizen, have hundreds of thousands of members). He then stated that
we must
>never have another WTO meeting on US soil because it was too easy for
>advocacy groups to organize here and security could not be assured .
. .  He
>added that President Clinton's speech during the WTO meeting in
Seattle, in
>which the president acknowledged the protesters' concerns, was
"disgraceful"
>and stated that it was also disgraceful that delegates to the WTO
meeting in
>Seattle had to survive on sandwiches and couldn't get a decent meal
during
>three days of social protest. The Lord finished his speech by
recalling
>better times having tea with Maggie, and stating that the staff of
the WTO
>Secretariat ~ should not be balanced with people from developing
countries
>just because of the color of their skin.  After a few words with the
>chairman of the meeting, Lord Patterson added "Oh, I hope I have not
>offended anyone."
>
>  . . . The largely American audience of trade officials and policy
wonks
>took the Lord's pronouncements seriously. The first comment by an
American,
>picked up on the criticisms and asked 'How can we de-legitimize the
NGOs?'
>The questioner claimed that these groups are usually supported by
just a few
>charitable foundations and if the foundations could be convinced to
cut off
>funding, the groups would be forced to cease operations.  Mr. Litan,
the
>former White House budget official, had another approach.  He [asked]
can't
>we give the NGOs other sandboxes to play in and have them take their
>concerns to groups like the International Labor Organization (a
toothless
>United Nations sponsored-group).  The representative from the US
Trade
>Representative's office said nothing.
>
>  . . . Under the banner of rebuilding public confidence in the WTO,
[former
>Agriculture Secretary] Yeutter concurred with his British colleague's
>suggestion that the next WTO meeting be held in some place other than
the US
>where security can be assured.  He further suggested that the WTO
give the
>public little advance notice of where the meeting would be held to
keep the
>protesters off balance.  He said that the protesters' demands for
greater
>transparency in WTO proceedings was a misnomer because the protesters
didn't
>really want to participate in WTO proceedings -- all they wanted was
to get
>TV coverage and raise money for their organizations.
>
>  . . . The day ended with the usual Washington reception  . . .
During
>desert, the foreign minister of Brazil lamented that if the next WTO
meeting
>had to be held in an out of the way place, he preferred that it be
held on a
>cruise ship instead of in the middle of the desert. He then gave an
>impassioned speech in which he opposed writing core labor standards
into the
>WTO agreement and defended child labor by describing how in one
region of
>Brazil, more than 5,000 children "help their families earn a little
extra
>money" by hauling bags of coal from a dump yard to a steel mill.  He
>stressed, however, that the children do not work directly in the
steel mill.
>He was greeted by a hearty round of applause.
>
>INSTITUTE FOR AGRICULTURE AND TRADE POLICY http://www.iatp.org