September 10, 2003
WTO Opens in Cancun to Protest, Tragic Suicide, Agricultural Strife & Debate on Whether “Free Trade” Means “Fair Trade”
Under fire without and within, 146 trade ministers convened today in Cancun Mexico at the World Trade Organization's Fifth Ministerial to discuss everything from enforcing intellectual property (IP) rights for software, music and movies in the developing world to, the primary local issue for Mexicans, the disintegration of rural economies from NAFTA. All this, even while the European Union’s high court ruled European states could ban genetically modified foods, a big loss for American agribusiness, and the suicide of a South Korean farmer that cast a shadow over the event; here’s an excerpt from AlterNet:
- “A South Korean farmer, Kun Hai Lee, committed ritual suicide during the WTO's opening day to protest the organization's agricultural policies. Witnesses said Lee stood in front of police lines, declared that "the WTO kills farmers," and then slashed himself to death with a blade. His suicide came on South Korea's Day of the Dead. Few at the demonstration realized what had occurred until later in the day. As word slowly spread of the suicide, supporters of Kun Hai Lee vowed to protest his martyrdom throughout the coming week, possibly starting with a tent city at the barricades where the death occurred.”
The WTO issued a rather weak statement of “regret”, but took no responsibility for the man’s actions.
Indeed, anti-globalization protests were strong in this round, reminding us of the sometimes violent protests at the Seattle round in 1999. Another AlterNet excerpt reads, the “battle to impose genetically-altered crops on Europe has lost American agri-business $1 billion during the past five years. And $190 billion in U.S. farm subsidies has inflamed discontent from Brazil to Mexico.”
CorpWatch has good coverage of the agriculture issue - which really makes me wonder if the long-range planners are at all thinking about their collective future - and recasts the debate as a north-south conflict, with armies of farmers from developing nations demanding the WTO lay off agriculture:
- “However, if the north/south rift widens, tensions between Washington and the EU resurface and street protests heat up, negotiators will find themselves in the same volatile situation that derailed the WTO's Seattle round four years ago. Thousands of farmers have already taken to the streets in Cancun to demand the WTO stay out of agriculture. The rest of the debate will unfold behind closed doors as the trade negotiations progress this week.”
A good piece from BusinessWeek reiterates the stakes in this round as well - that the developed world versus the developing world presents such profound challenges to getting this right and fair for everybody.
Finally, NPR’s On-Point had a great audio piece on the growing disillusionment with the WTO process even in the developed world over the continued export of white-collar jobs to low-wage nations abroad:
- “If everyone from IBM to textile mills ships jobs overseas, what is left for American workers? If jobs chase low wages, does everyone end up poor?”
- Arik
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Update: Just five days later, talks ended in failure.
Posted by Arik Johnson at September 10, 2003 02:21 PM | TrackBack
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