Last week, United States trade delegates arrived in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar. They met with trade ministers from around the world to decide the rules that will determine the future of the global economy. These representatives were given anti-anthrax Cipro pills, flown by military helicopters to aircraft carriers parked in the Persian Gulf and rushed inside the World Trade Organization meetings with gas masks to avoid any bioterrorist attacks during the very controversial trade talks.
Many delegates from the developing world are upset with the tactic of the WTO's strongest economic member, the United States. Delegates to the last ministerial meeting of the WTO in Nov. 1999 were sent packing after talks collapsed in Seattle. Mass protests and rioting in the streets against the WTO paralyzed the meetings, as delegates were blocked from entering the building. Protesters' calls for debt relief and fair trade reflected the grievances of the WTO's poorest member nations, and the meetings were canceled.
Since then, leading ministers of the WTO have called for a return to talks, but little progress has been made to reassure the working poor of Third World nations that relief is on the way. With an economic downward spiral under way, multinational corporations are lining up to take advantage of the situation. Last week, the U.N. International Labor Organization predicted that more than 24 million jobs will be lost worldwide by the end of 2002. U.S. trade diplomats are strong-arming many African countries to pass trade measures that benefit corporations, while health epidemics plague the continent.
Drugs that counter AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria are too expensive for impoverished African countries to afford. Patent laws under the WTO prevent the manufacture of less-expensive generic versions of prescription drugs, thus protecting the profits of multinational pharmaceutical companies. U.S. WTO delegates have threatened to reduce economic relief to African member nations that reproduce these drugs inexpensively, and this has stalled trade negotiations. The London Guardian reported Nov. 9 that Nigeria blasted the WTO for being \one-sided"" and for ""disregarding the concerns of the developing and least developed countries.""
Democratic control of governmental regulation is also threatened by the trade demands of the WTO. Under the General Agreement on Trade in Services, government regulations would be affected by ""transparency"" clauses. Public laws that determine services like health care programs, water management or electrical utilities would be overridden by the WTO. Public services administered by federal and local governments, which are responsible to representatives elected by citizens, could reside instead under unelected WTO bureaucrats. Under GATS, services provided to the public by government would be considered a ""barrier to trade."" Corporations assert that government subsidies for public services are an unfair trade advantage, but they are really looking to profit at citizens' expense.
Citizens in California know all too well how the transfer of public control to private management of public services can backfire. When the state's public electric utilities sector was sold to out-of-state energy corporations, the cost of power skyrocketed and the energy supply was manipulated into false shortages. While citizens sat in the dark, profits for energy corporations like Enron and Edison doubled because they were not accountable to the voters of California.
Labor unions across the world are also opposing the WTO. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, representing 221 unions from 148 countries, is demanding that core labor standards be adopted by the WTO. They demand that WTO rules be subordinate to the protection of human rights, the environment, health and safety. Unions are also urging that public and socially beneficial services be excluded from the GATS. Most importantly, opponents of the WTO want the decision-making process to be democratic and open to public scrutiny. Without accountability to voters, the WTO can expect to see more protest over its trade agenda.
Today at 6:30 p.m. there will be a panel discussion, ""The Future of the Global Justice Movement after Sept. 11,"" sponsored by the Madison Fair Trade Action Alliance. The discussion will be on the second floor of the Madison Public Library, 201 W. Mifflin St.
