/* Written 6:49 AM Aug 3, 1994 by kmander in igc:trade.news */ /* ---------- "GATT Alet! 8-3-94" ---------- */ GATT Alert! Wednesday, August 3, 1994 ____________________________________________________ Headlines: Growing List of GATT Opponents New York Times Ad Accuses Kantor of Deceiving Public on GATT There's No Rush to Pass GATT House Republicans Declare GATT "Dead on Arrival" Fast Track Likely to Be Excluded Wheat Dispute Foreshadows Life Under GATT Quote of the Day ____________________________________________________ -Growing List of GATT Opponents- Public Citizen has put together an impressive list of organizations opposed to the Uruguay Round of GATT and the World Trade Organization. The list is broken down into the following categories: State Officials, Labor, Consumer, Environmental, Religious, Farm and Humane and Animal Welfare. For a copy of the list or letters by the various groups, call Public Citizen's Trade Program at (202) 546- 4996. ____________________________________________________ -New York Times Ad Accuses Kantor of Deceiving Public on GATT- An advertisement in Monday's New York Times accuses U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor of misleading Congress, the press and the public about the Uruguay Round of GATT. The ad, signed by Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook, Greenpeace Executive Director Barbara Dudley and Citizen's Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste Executive Director Lois Gibbs, says Kantor is wrong to claim the World Trade Organization would not affect U.S. laws. For a 10- page analysis of Kantor's claims versus the truth about the trade agreement, call (202) 546-8630. ____________________________________________________ -There's No Rush to Pass GATT- If you only listened to White House officials, you would think it is absolutely vital for Congress to vote on the Uruguay Round before mid-term elections. In reality, neither the European Union nor Japan is expected to vote on the 22,000 page agreement before 1995. So why should the U.S? Japanese officials haven't even finished translating the document from English to Japanese, let alone submit it for debate in the Japanese Diet. To get a vote in Japan this year would require a Special Session of the Diet, unlikely considering Japan's shaky political climate and the fact that the two political parties in Japan's ruling coalition oppose GATT. Europe continues to battle over whether each individual country must approve GATT or if the Union can decide for all the countries. ____________________________________________________ -House Republicans Declare GATT "Dead on Arrival"- By an 11-9 vote, the Senate Finance Committee approved an $11.5 billion plan to pay for the Uruguay Round. Three Democrats from wheat producing states joined six Republicans in voting against the trade pact. The Democrats opposed cutting agriculture spending while the Republicans criticized the plan's tax increases. House Republicans later called the plan "Dead on Arrival" and vowed to defeat GATT if the funding plan contained tax increases. ____________________________________________________ -Fast Track Likely to Be Excluded- Many Republicans oppose international negotiations on labor and environmental standards and thus oppose granting an extension of fast track negotiating authority as part of GATT implementing legislation. Members of the House Ways and Means Committee proposed a compromise under which fast track would be extended as long as it applied only to trade negotiations. But the Clinton administration rejected the compromise after the AFL-CIO threatened an all-out fight against GATT if the compromise plan was added to implementing legislation. The AFL-CIO has said all along that it opposes GATT, but the threat of a strong fight had the administration scared. Here's how the Journal of Commerce put it: "[The rejection] also reflects fears that active opposition from labor could provide a crucial margin against the agreement in the Senate, where creative accounting by the administration has left a plan to fund the pact open to parliamentary challenge." The Senate Finance Committee didn't consider fast track, saying that it could wait until next year. Fast track is now expected to be dropped from implementing legislation. ____________________________________________________ -Wheat Dispute Foreshadows Life Under GATT- The U.S. and Canada avoided the possibility of a trade war by reaching a temporary settlement of their battle over Canadian wheat shipments to the United States. Trade lawyers argue that under NAFTA Canada should be free to export as much wheat as possible to the U.S. But U.S. grain farmers say the Canadian imports unfairly bring down wheat prices. Canada and the U.S. have established a review panel which will issue a report within a year. The issue represents the sort of international trade disputes we can expect to increase under the WTO, especially if countries like the United States decide when and when not to abide by the terms contained in trade agreements. ____________________________________________________ -Quote of the Day- "Goods produced under conditions which do not meet a rudimentary standard to decency should be regarded as contraband and not allowed to pollute the channels of international commerce." Q Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1937 ____________________________________________________ GATT ALERT! is published weekly by the Fair Trade Campaign. If you have news about local activities or anything else, please send a note to the Fair Trade Campaign, Box 80066, Minneapolis, MN 55408. For information on receiving GATT ALERT!, call (612) 379- 5965. ____________________________________________________
