| Whoever said that victory has many
fathers and defeat is an orphan, surely had never heard of the World Trade
organization (WTO). In the case of the hapless multilateral trade body and its
long suffering representatives, the total failure of the opening meeting of the
so-called Millennium trade round has lots of people boasting of their role in
the violent physical struggle. Well. That's just brilliant. They are proud of
being part of a movement that wants to wreck the most important engine of
economic growth, prosperity and overall global rising living standards we
have--the freedom of trade and movement of people and goods between
nations. The 135-members WTO is composed of sovereign governments wishing to further this goal and ease the settlement of international trade disputes. From the sounds emanating from Seattle, though, it would now seem the WTO has now replaced the Trilateral Commission and the Freemasons as candidate No. 1 to take over the world. Everybody has his favorite Seattle story. The city's police chief will have plenty of time to think about his, having now resigned in disgrace over the loss of control of downtown Seattle. The Seattle business community may be more inclined to brood over theirs; the poor fools invested $ 9 million to attract the meeting to their fine city. What stands out more? I would nominate the union of steel workers who were marching in protest. It's an image that will boggle the mind for years to come. The debate now is over just how effective this anti-globalist coalition will turn out to be. In the heat of the moment, it always looks as though the world as we know it is coming to an end. But the overwhelming likelihood is that we have not actually seen a replay of the anti-Vietnam War movement, which had much clearer focus, obviously, though its consequences were far-reaching. How long, after all, can you protest against cheap imports when those same imports are all over your house? No, the real reason for the disaster in Seattle is political, and reports coming out of the meeting point to President Clinton as a major culprit. Which may be both good and bad. Taking the long view, other trade rounds have had difficult beginnings, too. It took years to get the Uruguay Round under way, which finally happened in 1986. Thankfully, we will soon be electing another president, and it should be someone whose actions match his rhetoric. Still, it is a disgrace that the world's greatest trading nation, i. e. the United States, is currently led by a man whose motivations are so narrowly political and egocentric that he has now wrecked any chance of entering the history books as a champion of free trade. |