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Journalism of Courage
The US has not seen anything like the protests in Seattle in a long time butany resemblance to liberal and left-wing protests of the 1970s and 1960s ispurely superficial. Apart from the anarchists without whom no demonstrationsare complete, a whole range of interests was represented by NGOs, tradeunionists and environmental groups.
Some demanded trade with Cuba, members of Greenpeace demonstrated for 8220;safetrade8221; and others against the exploitation of poor countries. But thedominant voices captured by the media were those of domestic Americandiscontent: people viscerally opposed to the power of big corporations andgroups who fear competition from developing countries and demand labour andenvironmental linkages with trade. What does it all mean? President BillClinton for one felt it necessary to respond to the street and said it isimportant for the WTO to show how global trade can improve people8217;s lives.Nowhere is this more true than in developing countries which were given araw deal in the Uruguay Round and even before that is remedied are beinghustled into a new round of trade talks.
Evidently these changes have not been meaningful for some sections ofsociety which are being left behind. But their sense of injury comes nowherenear what consumers, workers and producers in developing countries feelafter the first round of trade agreements failed to meet the promise ofopening up opportunities. Even as developing country tariff barriers havefallen, all sorts of barriers, some illegal, have been raised in advancedcountries to keep out imports from poorer countries. The US has as many as300 anti-dumping regulations in force which have the effect, WTO rules or noWTO rules, of blocking or raising the cost of goods from developingcountries.
The Seattle protests will have served an important purpose if they focus theminds of trade negotiators on one essential fact: the outcome must satisfypeople and not just statisticians in trade ministries. Globalisation willencounter much more opposition in developing countries than anything the UShas seen if more benefits do not begin to be visible from the opening up oftrade in goods and services. Already the sense of injustice is sharpening inIndia and other countries over the one-sidedness of the WTO agenda and thepressures being mounted to further it. Seattle could deal a serious blow toglobal trade if basic demands are not conceded such as the lowering ofadvanced countries8217; tariff and non-tariff barriers on textiles, footwear andagricultural produce.
