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1999 WTO News Archive

12/22/99

The WTO Debacle in Seattle -- A Unity Statement of Philippine social movements, labor groups, people's organizations and NGOs

12/16/99

After Seattle -- Can developing countries, labor unions, environmentalists, and anarchists get together to overturn the corporate new world order?

12/15/99

Victory in Seattle -- On Dec. 5 the New York Times announced that "there were no victors in the globalization battle of Seattle." Try telling that to scores of Bay Area protesters who returned home late last week after achieving the impossible: shutting down the WTO ministerial meeting and turning the global trading system's corporate-driven assault on workers and the environment into an international front-page story.

12/15/99

The Seattle Protesters Got It Right -- Global trade politics will never be the same after Seattle. For the first time, the issue is squarely joined: Shall human rights take their place alongside property rights in the global economic system? For advocates of laissez-faire trade, of course, the matter is far simpler. Those who question "free trade," as The New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman wrote indignantly, are "a Noah's Ark of flat-earth advocates." The man can mix a metaphor as well as miss the point.

12/14/99

Spinning a new mythology: W.T.O. as the protector of the poor -- by Vandana Shiva, IFG. In the new discourse, Third World elites and states define Global Corporations as their natural allies and NGOs as their enemies. We need to rapidly move beyond the State-centered North-South discourse on WTO and evolve a people-centered North-South Politics which conserves the momentum of Seattle and prevents the caricature of northern citizens group as a private threat to the Third World.

12/14/99

Indigenous Peoples' Seattle Declaration -- This Indigenous Peoples' Seattle Declaration was developed by the Indigenous Peoples Caucus during the Third Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Please sign-on. See end of text for directions.

12/10/99

Rights Group Wants WTO-Police Probe -- Amnesty International on Friday called for an inquiry into police action during demonstrations in Seattle against the World Trade Organization.

12/10/99

Amnesty International calls for an inquiry into police actions at WTO talks in Seattle -- Amnesty International calls for an inquiry into police actions at WTO talks in Seattle Reports of widespread police abuses against non-violent protesters and others during the World Trade Organization talks last week in Seattle are deeply disturbing, Amnesty International said today.

12/10/99

The Historic Significance of Seattle -- by Vandana Shiva, IFG. The failure of the W.T.O Ministerial meeting in Seattle was a historic watershed. It has demonstrated that globalisation is not an inevitable phenomena which must be accepted at all costs but a political project which can be responded to politically.

12/10/99

Global Exchange Appalled that WTO Deal with China Ignores Labor Rights -- In negotiating the WTO deal with China, US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky went to great pains to guarantee rights for foreign investors, but neglected to champion workers' rights such as freedom of association. In doing so, the Clinton Administration has placed corporate profits above human lives and basic freedoms.

12/8/99

WTO Fallout Deepens -- The tear gas has lifted, downtown businesses have re-opened and the international delegates are gone. The World Trade Organization protests may be over, but the fallout is just beginning. Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper announced his resignation Tuesday and now others are calling for the resignation--or even impeachment--of Mayor Paul Schell.

12/3/99

Seattle Talks on Trade End with Stinging Blow to U.S. -- President Clinton's effort to shape an ambitious agenda to liberalize trade and broaden the mandate of the World Trade Organization collapsed here Friday night, after a rebellion by developing countries and deadlock among America's biggest trading partners forced the administration to all but abandon one of its major foreign policy goals for the end of Clinton's presidency.

12/3/99

WTO: The Final Day -- Friday is the fourth and final day of the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle. The city may get a break from demonstrations.

12/3/99

Seattle protests put a new activism in play -- The images of disorder in Seattle this week evoked for millions of Americans eerie memories of the turbulent 1960s, when anti-Vietnam War protests and the struggles of the civil rights movement seared the nation. But the deftly organized protests against the World Trade Organization summit were not, in fact, an echo of a tumultuous decade, historians say, but rather a groundbreaking campaign that will propel grass-roots activism and civil disobedience into the new century.

12/2/99

Rebels in Search of Rules -- It is all too easy to dismiss the protesters at the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle as radicals with 60's envy. This protest movement is really anti-corporate rather than anti-globalist, and its roots are in the anti-sweatshop campaigns taking aim at Nike, the human rights campaign focusing on Royal Dutch/Shell in Nigeria and the backlash against Monsanto's genetically engineered foods in Europe.

12/2/99

Not all protesters on seek-and-destroy mission -- An article by Chicago Tribune reporter David Greising, who sat in on a meeting with a group of Global Exchange staff and friends after Tuesday's demonstration in Seattle.

11/23/99

The World Trade Organization Year 2000 Round of Negotiations -- An open letter to the leaders of the world from the Honourable Paul Hellyer, (former Deputy Prime Minister) Leader of the Canadian Action Party. The views expressed reflect 50 years of experience in business, politics and economic affairs.

11/22/99

Three arrested at Seattle WTO protest -- Police in Seattle on Monday arrested three anti-WTO activists, two of whom climbed down the outside of six-story building to unfurl a protest banner in the city where the World Trade Organization starts a summit at the end of the month.

11/17/99

New Report Illustrates Impact of WTO Ruling on Sea Turtles -- Sea Turtle Restoration Project and Project Swarajya have released a report documenting the impact of the World Trade Organization on both endangered sea turtles and traditional fishing communities. The report, titled Dead Sea Turtles: Good for the Global Economy?, highlights the continued mass killing of sea turtles by shrimp trawlers in India.

11/17/99

Free Trade Needs a Nod from Labor -- The World Trade Organization meeting that starts in Seattle on Nov. 30 is shaping up to be a pivotal moment for free trade. It won't be the usual quiet, ministerial affair, though. More than 50,000 demonstrators will also descend on Seattle, pressing their case that the trade body ignores labor rights and environmental issues.

The most serious threat will come from U.S. unions, which plan to wage battle on two fronts. One will be the streets: Already, unions are preparing banners and floats about greedy capitalists and exploited workers that will attack the WTO as fundamentally flawed.

11/16/99

Americans on Globalization -- To explore in depth the American public's attitudes toward these questions, the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) conducted three focus groups and a nationwide poll. The focus groups were held in Dallas, Texas; Battle Creek, Michigan; and Baltimore, Maryland.

11/16/99

Oakland City Council Says Stop WTO -- The Oakland City Council unanimously passed the following resolution expressing opposition to the policies of the WTO that are undermining local economic development initiatives, environmental protections and democratic citizen rights.

11/14/99

Trade is hard sell for Commerce Secretary William Daley -- U.S. Commerce Secretary William Daley is frustrated as he completes the last leg of a 20-city tour to sell benefits of free trade to a skeptical public.

11/4/99

WTO Serves Polluters Not the Public -- Representatives of five local, state, national, and international environmental organizations released two reports today that illustrate how a world subjected to WTO rules will likely be a more polluted one.

11/2/99

Senate Letter to President Clinton Opposing the GFLA -- An excellent letter from Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) to President Clinton opposing the "global free logging agreement" at the World Trade Organization (WTO). The letter is open for all Senators to sign--including yours!

11/2/99

Australia Exploits Loophole in US Turtle-Shrimp Law -- In an effort that further erodes environmental laws, the US State Department, still seeking to appease the World Trade Organization, is allowing Australia to export shrimp to the US without having a national Turtle Excluder Device law in place.

11/1/99

WTO Set for Showdown on Labour Rights -- The US set the stage at the weekend for a showdown in talks on the agenda for a new world trade round by tabling a controversial proposal that the World Trade Organisation should examine the links between international trade and labour.

10/28/99

Statement by AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney on Workers' Rights and the WTO -- The current system of global trade and investment rules has failed miserably on many counts. It has weakened the bargaining power of workers all over the world, has undermined legitimate national regulations designed to protect the environment and public health, and has exacerbated financial instability and growing inequality worldwide.

10/25/99

U.S., EU Ministers Seek Accord to Salvage WTO Meeting -- Trade and foreign ministers from 25 countries are meeting in Switzerland in a bid to bolster a planned round of global trade talks that could collapse because of disagreements over the agenda.

10/17/99

Bay Area Residents Jump into Mega-environmental Protest -- Free trade. It's the place where ultra-conservative presidential hopeful Pat Buchanan meets liberal consumer activist Ralph Nader, labor unions and some of the nation's most aggressive environmentalists.

This potent political mix -- where right circles around to meet left -- could very well produce the nation's largest ever demonstrations against economic globalization.

10/16/99

What's at stake in Seattle? -- Buried in the mountain of agenda papers of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks, due to start at the end of November in Seattle, are proposals that will accelerate the creeping privatisation of healthcare, education and other vital public services. Hospitals, outpatient facilities, clinics, nursing homes, assisted living arrangements and care services provided in the home, are all targeted.

10/14/99

Activist Group Public Citizen Joins Attack on WTO -- One of the country's best-known activist groups joined in the chorus of voices criticizing the World Trade Organization yesterday, suggesting the international agency has led the United States and other countries to weaken their environmental, health and safety laws.

10/13/99

WTO is weakening health laws, Nader says -- Detailing criticisms likely to form the basis for much of the protest in Seattle next month, Ralph Nader today is releasing a study of the World Trade Organization alleging that the WTO is undermining environmental and public health laws around the world.

10/8/99

WTO Chief Faces Opponents in Seattle -- Michael Moore, the New Zealand politician who now heads the World Trade Organization, had a taste of Seattle yesterday--from dignitaries to protesters.

10/8/99

Will Labor Fight the WTO? -- Unions are scaling back protests against free trade and the WTO. The early, giddy estimates of 50,000 people on the streets of Seattle for World Trade Organization protests November 29-December 3 may have been premature.

10/6/99

Faceless in Seattle -- The party of the millennium is not, contrary to popular thinking, happening on New Year's Eve. It's occurring just over a month earlier in Seattle, where environmental, human rights and labour organisers are planning a ding-dong of a protest.

10/5/99

The Future of Education Under the WTO -- An article on the WTO's agenda for education, by 180/Movement for Democracy and Education Clearinghouse. MDE is coordinating Democracy Teach-Ins on the WTO on campus across North America October 5-7, 1999.

9/30/99

Clinton urged to help 'sell' global trade -- Concerned that critics of the World Trade Organization have taken over the debate and may eventually take over the streets, political leaders in Seattle and Washington, D.C., are expressing growing consternation that the Clinton administration isn't doing an adequate job defending global trade.

9/28/99

Santa Cruz City Resolution on WTO -- Resolution of the City Council of the city of Santa Cruz to oppose expansion of the powers of the World Trade Organization during the millennium round of negotiations.

9/27/99

President's Report: Just say 'No' to the WTO -- When finance and trade ministers from governments around the world gather at the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Seattle later this year, working people have to worry about what they're up to. (By Brian McWilliams, ILWU International President)

9/20/99

Trade Winds Set to Lash Seattle -- The port city is the focus for a planned festival of resistance against the latest round of trade talks, with activists arguing the World Trade Organization is unelected and unaccountable.

9/16/99

Coalition launches drive against trade liberalisation -- A coalition of more than 1,100 public interest groups in 87 countries will today launch a petition demanding a halt to efforts to launch a new round of trade liberalisation talks at the World Trade Organisation's ministerial meeting in Seattle this November.

9/15/99

Showdown in Seattle -- A shadowy international group increasingly tells governments what they can and can't do. Activists are taking on the World Trade Organization at its first ever U.S. meeting this fall.

9/13/99

Fair Trade and Corporate Welfare -- Corporate welfare for U.S. transnational corporations isn't a hot issue in the current budget fight on Capitol Hill. But it should be. Although budget reformers have largely ignored the issue, citizens opposing corporate welfare may find an unlikely ally in the World Trade Organization (WTO).

9/10/99 Protesters busily practice for WTO meeting in Seattle -- When World Trade Organization negotiators from more than 130 countries arrive in Seattle in November, they will be greeted by giant puppets, street dancers, anarchists, activists dangling from skyscrapers and a mass of protesting steelworkers and Teamsters.

8/6/99

A Plan to Let Public in on WTO Talks -- The Clinton administration wants to set aside the day before this fall's World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle to allow consumer, environmental and labor groups to air their concerns directly to the world's trade ministers.

7/24/99

U.S. Laws Diluted by Trade Pacts Rulings Stir Criticism across Political Spectrum -- What do the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Endangered Species Act and clean-air rules of the United States and Canada have in common? They all have been weakened because of rulings by international trade tribunals, whose legal and diplomatic power is under growing, bipartisan criticism.

7/22/99

Consumers Mop Up in Milk War -- In an unprecedented move, the United Nations food standards agency has ruled that safety concerns about a bovine growth hormone manufactured by Monsanto could not be ignored. The decision has forced the United States to drop its suit in the WTO.

7/16/99

Globalization Foes Plan to Protest WTO's Seattle Round Trade Talks -- As activists see it, the Seattle gathering is the ultimate chance to stem a tide of international corporate greed that is destroying the environment, sending developing countries deeper into poverty and generally running amok.

7/7/99

Democracy For Sale: The WTO -- On this program, the National Radio Project's Globalization desk takes a look at the WTO, its goals and how its decisions have affected the world's economies. Listen to the show on-line.

6/11/99

Human Struggle for Survival Plays Out Behind Banana Wars -- The contrast between Guatemala, in the U.S. camp, and beleaguered Belize on the European side points up depth of the dispute.

3/26/99

Transparency, Participation and Legitimacy of the WTO -- Statement of the Third World Network at the WTO Symposia on Trade and Environment and Trade and Development, Geneva, March 1999.

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