Jane Cover

From: J. Cover
Sent: Thursday, December 02, 1999 1:44 PM

Dear Friends;
I'm forwarding some information about our riots out here that might not be included in the press coverage you are receiving in other parts of the country. Suffice it to say, this has shaken us up a lot, and it will take many Seattlites a long time to work through our frustration and anger with our local officials and our police department. You may not be aware that I am a legal observer at the protests and have seen many many civil rights violations over the past few days. The number of people who have been gassed, sprayed and shot at with rubber and plastic bullets numbers in the thousands. Don't be deceived by media reports suggesting that the police are responding to the shinanigans of hooligans and gang members. While of course those elements are taking advantage of the confusion, the vast majority of people out there in the streets are demonstrators committed to their cause and to nonviolence. Their courage in the face of police brutality is astounding.
In solidarity,
jane

From: J. Cover
Sent: Friday, December 03, 1999 2:34 PM

Hi Mark,
I must say, its nice to be asked about the WTO issues. Out here, the focus has been somewhat overshadowed by the outrageous behavior of our police department, which is a bit more pertinent to the daily lives of Seattle residents. The police seem to have been reined in by the way, and the Mayor is doing some speedy backpeddling trying to save his political
butt.

Civil liberty violations aside, I can give your question about what's wrong with the WTO a shot, and perhaps the rest of you can chime in with anything I've overlooked/misrepresented.

In my opinion, there are a four big things wrong with the WTO. First, hey are undemocratic and secretive. The WTO can rule that a country's laws and regulations are barriers to free trade, regardless of the fact that those laws were passed by the people or in the public interest. The decisions made by the WTO are heavily influenced by corporations who have access to the negotiations, while public citizens are excluded and have no vehicle to provide input. When I say they are influenced by corporations, I mean specifically that the advisory panels to the WTO are MADE UP OF CORPORATE INTERESTS, called "Industry Sector Advisory Committees". Proceedings are held behind closed doors (in the case of Seattle, the doors are guarded by rows of stormtroopers...)

Second, the WTO tramples on human rights. The WTO has ruled that it is: 1) illegal to ban a product because of the way it is produced (ie. Using child or prison labor) and 2) governments cannot ban products from companies who do business with vicious dictatorships (ie. Burma).

Third, the WTO is bad for your health. The South African government policy of encouraging the adoption of generic HIV drugs produced locally or imported from countries where they are cheaper is being challenged by the US (speaking for US drug companies) as a violation of free trade. To give another example, some European countries would rather not eat our hormone treated beef. The WTO has said that in order to avoid trade sanctions, or penalties, the countries need to produce scientific evidence that hormone treated beef is dangerous to human health (recall that normally, we require a product to be proven safe, not that it be proven dangerous...)

Finally, the WTO is bad for the environment. You may be familiar with the US Endangered Species Act regulations that barr the importation of tuna not caught with dolphin safe nets or shrimp with turtle safe nets. The WTO has ruled that these constitute barriers to free trade. The US has some options. We can stick to our guns and face trade sanctions (tarrifs on our exports), pay a great big fine (paid with taxpayer dollars), or change our regulations. I'm not sure what has happened with the turtles, but in the case of the dolphins, the US has repealed its law. In another example, Venezuala challenged our Clean Air Act regulations requiring gas to be "clean". Because of the WTO ruling, our own standards for the Clean Air Act were relaxed in order to avoid sanctions or fines.

This is why the WTO is accused of being undemocratic, a hazard to people and our environment. Of course, there are other reasons why WTO is a big nightmare, but these are the kickers for me. To read more about it, go to www.globalexchange.org or nlg.org (national lawyers guild) or citizen.org (public citizen).

I have the impression that the ruckus out here has made some folks sit up and ask what all the fuss is about. With sustained pressure, we might be able to change the WTO. But we have a long row to hoe.

Jane

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