Nov. 4: Worldwide Day of Protest Against WTO
11/2/99
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Title: Nov. 4 Day of Protest: TARIFF-Free Timber Trade
Source: Environment News Service
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: November 2, 1999
WASHINGTON, DC, November 2, 1999 (ENS) - Forest protection activists
around the world will join together November 4 to let their
governments know that they oppose any World Trade Organization
agreements that benefit multinational timber corporations at the
expense of ancient forests, forest communities, and threatened eco-
systems.
Activists will hold press conferences, meet with government
officials, conduct teach-ins, and hit the streets in protest on
Thursday. Participants include members of the Washington, D.C.-based
American Lands Alliance, the San Francisco-based Rainforest Action
Network, and Action for Community & Ecology in the Rainforests of
Central America.
A primary target for the day is what the activists call the "global
free logging agreement" at the World Trade Organization (WTO). The
WTO's 135 member countries are holding a ministerial meeting in
Seattle, Washington November 30 to December 3 to launch a new round
of international trade talks. One of the eight sectors covered will
be forest products.
International activists have also called November 4 a day of protest
against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and in support of
the indigenous peoples of Chiapas, Mexico. Their protest will be held
while Trade Ministers from 34 Latin American countries meet in
Toronto, Canada to discuss the FTAA. The Free Trade Area of the
Americas is viewed as the southward expansion of the North American
Free Trade Agreement which takes in Canada, the USA, and Mexico. The
activists see these agreements as detrimental to the environment
because they permit freer trade without corresponding environmental
protections.