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May 24, 1999 The Clinton Administration "overstepped the boundary of seemliness when it let Seattle literally sell next November's ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization" declared a Los Angeles Times editorial last week (Wed., May 19, 1999) The World Trade Organization (WTO) will decide environmental issues of global significance at next November's Summit in Seattle, Washington. On the table, for instance, will be a proposed new trade agreement for forest products that could increase wood consumption and clearcut logging worldwide. Environmentalists will also be pressing for review and reform of trade rules such as those that allowed a successful challenge to US sea turtle protections last year as "an illegal barrier to trade." And consumer groups are concerned that the Summit could be used to close a deal on trade in bio-engineered foods -- so called "franken-foods" -- with the potential for wide-ranging impacts on consumer health and safety. Despite the vital environmental issues at stake, the Clinton Administration authorized a private sector group calleed the Seattle Host Organization, co-chaired by Boeing's Phil Condit and Microsoft's Bill Gates, to raise the $9 million to pay for the Summit. With big corporations footing the bill, the LA Times worries the WTO will not develop "a reputation as authoritative regulator of global trade and impartial arbiter of disputes among its member countries." As Margrete Strand, a Sierra Club spokesman, told the Wall Street Journal, "[US Trade Representative] Charlene Barshevsky will be much more inclined to listen to Phil Condit and Bill Gates than to other interested parties. They might not want to bite the hand that feeds them." Corporate heavies such as Weyerhauser, General Motors, and Ford, with major stakes in the outcome of this Summit, have already ponied up big bucks. Their contributions will go toward renting and outfitting a convention center and transporting delegates around town. Clinton Administration officials claim that it is now the norm for private corporations to fund major international summits, citing private funding for the NATO Summit this Spring in Washington, DC. But the last two WTO Summmits were funded by governments and the WTO, not private interests. As if to confirm citizens' concerns, Pat Davis of the Seattle Host Organization said, "We're going to have to get 400 contributors. No individual company will be able to say they bought this meeting." (Financial Times, April 7, 1999) Responded the Sierra Club, "If the whole enterprise is being funded by corporations, you've got to raise fundamental questions about how neutral, how legitimate it is." (Seattle Weekly, April 22, 1999) Up to Top HOME | Email Signup | About Us | Contact Us | Terms of Use | © 2008 Sierra Club |
