Gift of the WTO

EARTHKEEPING NEWS
A NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COALITION FOR CHRISTIANITY AND ECOLOGY

Volume Nine, Number Two
January/February 2000

By Elizabeth Dyson

From November 30 to December 3, 1999 trade ministers of 135 member nations of the World Trade Organization, along with hundreds of their advisors from the corporate world, met in the Seattle Convention Center to set an agenda for the further "liberalization of global trade." They were greeted in the streets of Seattle by 40,000 members of civil society from every continent, peacefully demonstrating their opposition to any trade expansion until the WTO has reviewed — with the full participation of civil society — its impact on marginalized communities, democracy, development, environment, health, labor and human rights. Both sides were being observed by 3,000 members of the world press.

You may have seen on TV the panic reaction of the Seattle police to the small number of dedicated eco-anarchists who damaged property, and to the peaceful members of the Direct Action Network who were sitting down in key intersections, and to the many more folks who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Of the over 400 people who were jailed, only a handful had charges brought against them. These scenes should have raised the questions "Why the fuss? What is wrong with the WTO?"

As a powerful global commerce agency, accountable to no one but itself, the WTO enforces 18 underlying agreements: basic rules on trade in goods, and new pacts on food, product and environmental standards, telecommunications, banking, investment, patents and copyrights and how your tax dollars can be spent. It sets caps on the level of food safety and environmental protection of member nations, and bans whole categories of policies — such as consideration of the human rights record of a nation in the decision to buy goods there.

Any nation's policies can be challenged by another WTO member, usually on behalf of business interests. Challenges are decided in secret by three faceless judges who are trade experts, not lawyers, and there are no outside appeals. When the WTO rules against a law, it must be changed, or the offending country faces economic sanctions. Of the 24 cases completed by the WTO tribunal, eight were challenges against public interest laws, including food safety and environmental protections. WTO declared all eight were illegal barriers to trade.

US environmental laws protecting dolphins, clean air and endangered species have all been successfully attacked by the WTO. As a result, the dolphin protection law has been gutted and the clean air rules weakened. The European Union dropped a new policy to reduce toxics leaching into drinking water from thrown-out electronics equipment after a WTO threat by United States. Guatemala's implementation of the UNICEF Code on substitutes for breast milk has been undermined by WTO threats, putting that country's infants at added risk.

Since the WTO was established in 1995 by the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), it has established a devastating track record of economic imperialism, directly attacking United Nations conventions that protect people and the environment (biosafety and biodiversity). Five years ago the WTO's corporate and government proponents promised the great economic benefits of "free trade." Since then, the standard of living for the majority of people in WTO countries has declined, and income inequality has increased. Over sixty percent of the world's food is produced by women who have been marginalized by industrialized farming. In WTO countries of the southern hemisphere, millions of farmers have been displaced each year by agri-business; fisheries have been depleted; food security threatened by genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Indigenous communities have no protection against "biopiracy."

What you did not see on TV were the teach-ins and seminars on the substantive, and controversial, aspects of the WTO, the two hour pep rally featuring speakers from around the world, the orderly walk of 35,000 with 900 members of the International Association of Machinists in orange hats acting as the marshals. Hundreds of colorful signs spelled out reasons for the global protest. The entire week was a carefully organized explosion of global consciousness! Leaders of some 1800 non-governmental organizations outside kept in close touch with their countries' delegates inside the Ministerial meetings. The organized Seattle protest is credited with strengthening the delegates from African, Asian and like minded countries, and forcing the Ministerial to end without a new agenda. A turning point in history — but just a beginning.

The great gift of the WTO meeting was to bring together for the first time the labor unions, farmers, human rights activists, environmentalists and faith communities in solidarity with similar folks in every part of the world, to work with governments and corporations for truly fair trade.

THE GIFT OF THE WTO