Forests Come Out on Top After `Battle in Seattle'
12/9/99
*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Forests Win the Battle in Seattle
Source: American Lands Alliance
http://www.americanlands.org
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: December 9, 1999
Byline: Antonia Juhasz and Pat Rasmussen
What Happened In Seattle? We Won!
Thanks to your efforts, the Global Free Logging Agreement has been
defeated, for now, at the World Trade Organization.
The world's trade ministers left Seattle last week without signing
any new agreements. They did not even agree on an agenda for their
planned new Round of trade negotiations that was to be kicked-off in
Seattle.
In other words, they did not sign the Global Free Logging Agreement
nor agree on anything that will impact forests in any way. We Won!
According to Mike Moore, Director General of the WTO, Trade Ministers
will begin meeting "soon" in Geneva to try to write an agenda for
the next Round of negotiations. However, no date has been set for
meeting in Geneva nor is there any indication that the Ministers will
be able to work out the difficulties that emerged in Seattle when
they meet again in Geneva.
It is important to note that the U.S. government never wavered in its
commitment to signing the GFLA in Seattle. Up until the bitter end
they were conditioning their acceptance of a new Round of
negotiations on having the GFLA signed in Seattle. The U.S.
government's obstinance on this and other issues is ultimately what
helped kill the negotiations altogether. The developing countries
saw -- thanks to the protesters in the streets, NGO activities "in
side" the negotiations and media reports from across the nation --
that the U.S. did not have the political support at home to stand
behind these threats. The developing nations were emboldened by the
opposition of developed country citizens and others to stand firm and
oppose the Seattle negotiations.
The Wall Street Journal commented that one reason why the forest
products agreement was not signed was because of the thousands of
pro-forest protesters in Seattle. Pro-forest protesters even made
the cover of the New York Times on Tuesday, November 30 with banners
tha read "Protect Our Forests, Clear-cut the WTO" (made by David
Jennings and Chris Vondrasek of Seattle) and "Free Rodolfo Montiel."
We all deserve to be congratulated on a job well done!
However, our work is not done. The Clinton Administration has yet to
be convinced to remove forests from the chopping block at the WTO.
The Administration needs to cease its support for the Global Free
Logging Agreement, it must state that it will not negotiate
agreements at the WTO that threaten to treat vital forest protection
measures as illegal trade barriers, it must agree to reform WTO rules
to protect our forests against invasions from invasive species, the
Administration must state that it will not support investment
negotiations at the WTO nor negotiations that limit our ability to
label genetically engineered trees, food and seeds. We must make sure
that the Administration knows that we are still watching and will
continue to watch as negotiations move from Seattle to Geneva.
Please call the White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair,
George Frampton at (202)456-6224 and Undersecretary of State for
Global Affairs, Frank Loy at (202)647-6240 and demand that the U.S.
government work to protect forests at the WTO as negotiations move
from Seattle to Geneva.