Ed,
What has been of interest in the discussion of the WTO across several list servs is
the lack of discussion about why nations have developed a new organization and have
not used a variety of organizations within the UN.
I can anticipate some of the possible responses but the fact that a new organization
had to be created says that the UN's openness might be the major problem.
---
Bill Ward
Research Director
Arthritis Research Institute of America
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Wed, 8 Dec 1999 08:18:26 Ed Weick wrote:
>I would not like to see the WTO scuttled or backed off into a small corner,
>though I do recognize that it is flawed as it currently exists. How might
>it be fixed? In column in the Globe and Mail recently, Sylvia Ostry
>suggested that we need a WEO to handle global environmental issues and a
>revived or empowered ILO to handle global labour issues. And on the matter
>of negotiation and dispute resolution between rich countries and poor, a
>special fund might be established which ensures a more level playing field.
>But I'm probably dreaming in technicolour here.
>
>Ed Weick
>
>>
>>Jan Matthieu of Flemish Greens wrote:
>>
>>> The tragic of the whole thing is that the protestors who managed to
>>> disrupt the talks at Seattle played straight into the cards of those
>>> interests they are so much against. The US big companies prefer no new
>>> talks to any real changes the way third world and some European
>>> countries wanted.
>>
>>Well, I'm not sure about that. In the WTO, the smaller countries do
>>have some clout, if only because of their numbers. I believe that the
>>late and unlamented MAI was pursued in the more exclusive OECD because
>>a similar initiative, the MIA, was facing opposition from small
>>countries in the WTO. But I'm also led to believe that the WTO is, as
>>I think Clinton mentioned, that the WTO is a "concensus" organization
>>because the powerful nations in which the TNCs are based know that
>>under a one-nation one-vote regime, the small nations would gang up on
>>them.
>>
>>That said, isn't it the case that if the WTO goes ahead, the US and
>>TNCs will wheedle, bribe and threaten the smaller and less developed
>>countries into submission? So long as the structure of the WTO
>>remains, individual concessions can be used as negotiating fodder
>>(bribes of a sort) and then be gradually whittled away by challenges
>>from TNCs in the WTO tribunals. The arcane legal details by which,
>>say, shipping a load of X implies a right to trade in megatons of Y on
>>the same terms or that absolute "proof" of harm must be evinced in
>>order to ban Z on health risk grounds -- those details offer a host of
>>cracks into which the TNCs will drive flying wedges of lawyers
>>whenever they choose. I doubt that India, let alone Botswana, can
>>front as much legal and technical expertise to tackle the Frankenseeds
>>invasion as Monsanto alone can to pursue it. Even Canada, under
>>existing NAFTA rules, was unable to defend itself against the
>>determination of Ethyl Corp. (the folks that brought us tetra-ethyl
>>lead) to flog methyl-cyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl as a gas
>>additive. That couldn't have happened if NAFTA had been scuttled in a
>>timely fashion.
>>
>>If the WTO hits a wall, that does leave the way open for the US to
>>continue its program to keep the world safe for TNC markets and
>>resource exploitation. But at least the small countries haven't
>>publically and officially signed over their sovereignty to tribunals
>>dominated by US/TNC revolving-door econocrats.
>>
>>So I dunno, Jan. I think the TNCs want their Declaration of
>>Independence and their Constitution, signed and sealed by putatively
>>democratic governments, establishing them as the only true citizens
>>and officially reducing the rest of us to the status of biomass.
>>Until they get that we can go on annoying them, however mixed our
>>collective motives and devious or corrupt our governments.
>>
>>- Mike
>>
>>--
>>Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada
>>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>URL: http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/mspencer/home.html
>>---
>>
>>
>>
>
>
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