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Suharto Resigns, Indonesia's Future Unclear
Indonesia’s President Suharto last week resigned from office amid anti-government protests and suspension of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) $43 billion aid program. Indonesian protestors occupied the parliament building last week demanding Suharto’s resignation and an end to a regime characterized by corruption and nepotism. Vice President Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie took over…
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Draft ministerial text submitted by the director-general at the second ministerial meeting
Revision 1. This Second Session of the Ministerial Conference of the WTO is taking place at a particularly significant time for the multilateral trading system, when the fiftieth anniversary of its establishment is being commemorated. On this occasion we pay tribute to the system’s important contribution over the past half-century to growth, employment and stability…
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G-8 meet amid protests for faster debt relief
Ministers from the seven largest industrialized economies and Russia (G- 8) met this past weekend in Birmingham, England for their annual summit, where the focus was on fighting crime and doing more to relieve debt in the world’s poorest countries. Before getting to those issues, G-8 leaders’ focus was distracted by the nuclear testing in…
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'Global economic crisis. What to do?' Fidel Castro at WTO
Addressing a plenary meeting of more than one thousand delegates plus non-governmental organizations gathered in Geneva to commemorate the 50 years of the WTO, Cuban President Fidel Castro called on the WTO to address the real issues of today’s global economy. Focusing on the economic weaknesses and hegemonic power of the U.S., Castro blamed the…
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EU-U.S. work to reach agreement on transatlantic issues
EU and U.S. negotiators this past weekend were to be on round-the-clock call as the two sides work furiously to reach agreement on the long- running trade dispute over U.S. sanctions laws. The EU-U.S. summit to be held Monday prompted the mad-dash at resolution: the summit was originally to focus on the proposed New Transatlantic…
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Trade, aid fallout after India's nuclear tests
The international community responded with grave concern and numerous calls for sanctions last week after India announced it had conducted five underground nuclear arms tests. The U.S. Administration led international condemnation of India saying the testing of nuclear weapons “creates a dangerous instability” in the region. Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajipayee said India was…
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Demonstrators protest Globalization
During the weekend before the WTO Ministerial Meeting, thousands of protesters from all over the world took to the streets of Geneva branding the WTO and the MAI - Multilateral Agreement on Investment - enemies. The demonstrators, loosely gathered under the banner of People’s Global Action (PGA), were a mixed group ranging from farmers to…
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Clinton endorses call for high-level WTO meeting on trade-environment and calls for WTO openness
President Bill Clinton called for a high-level meeting of trade and environmental ministers to provide direction to future WTO environmental efforts, echoing a suggestion of the European Commission to the same effect. The quadrilateral (US, EU, Japan, Canada) coordination mechanism (commonly known as “the Quad”) had already announced endorsement for the proposal two weeks ago. In…
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Pre-ministerial NGO meetings discuss agriculture, workers' rights, and the MAI
This past weekend, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) each held separate workshops in Geneva, Switzerland in preparation for the WTO Second Ministerial Conference and the 50th anniversary celebration of the multilateral trading system. The IATP workshop…
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WTO Ministerial and millennium round
Whether or not to engage in a new round of multilateral trade talks is to be a major topic of discussion when the WTO meets for its second ministerial meeting in Geneva this week. The so-called Millennium Round has been promoted heavily by the European Union, which wants a fresh round of negotiations to start in…