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To: H James Morris who wrote (85654)	11/29/1999 7:18:00 PM
From: GST	Respond to of 164685

Thanks H James for the WTO/Seattle update on e-commerce. We have all 'assumed' an open environment for e-commerce. I wonder what will be said this week on this issue as countries stake out their initial negotiating positions?

To: H James Morris who wrote (85654)	11/29/1999 8:55:00 PM
From: GST	Respond to of 164685

Monday November 29, 8:26 pm Eastern Time, Protesters attack McDonald's shop at WTO meeting (Recasts lead, adds six additional arrests) By Chris Stetkiewicz SEATTLE, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Protesters struck two icons of global capitalism in downtown Seattle Monday, attacking a McDonald's Corp. (NYSE:MCD - news) restaurant and Niketown store to vent their rage against world trade talks starting here this week. Several demonstrators, some wearing ski caps, masks and bandannas, smashed windows at the restaurant, while others -- carrying a banner protesting the genetic engineering of food -- jumped on the roof of a city bus. A short time later the protesters regrouped in front of the Nike Inc. (NYSE:NKE - news) shop, which finally was protected by a wall of riot police in full body armor. No arrests were reported at either location, although eight people were arrested in two separate incidents on a day filled with protests against the World Trade Organization ministerial talks scheduled to begin on Tuesday. At the McDonald's restaurant just four blocks from the convention center where the WTO meeting is being held, police cleared customers from the shop and then locked the doors as the protesters surged toward the store. The demonstrators, part of a crowd of 400 to 500, ripped down advertising placards and pasted their own signs on the outside of the restaurant. Backed by an armored troop carrier, a line of several dozen riot police stood impassively with their face shields down and batons drawn, as a group of masked protesters, dressed in black from head to toe, screamed profanities at them. Later some of the same protesters attempted to break into the Niketown store, just a block from the convention center in the heart of Seattle's shopping district. They were blocked by other protesters and finally by riot police who forced demonstrators back with their batons. The McDonald's incident occurred in conjunction with a speech by French farm leader Jose Bove, who gained fame earlier this year for wrecking a McDonald's in France in a protest against bioengineered food, which he calls ''Frankenfoods.'' ''We don't want to eat any more of that kind of food,'' Bove said in a brief address to the Seattle crowd. ''You've got to throw it in the sea.'' At the Niketown store protesters shouted slogans denouncing consumerism. The incidents were the most raucous so far in the run-up to the WTO talks, although demonstrators vowed to shut down the city Tuesday in a mass protest expected to draw up to 50,000 people. Courts were closed, some schools let students go home early, and Seattle residents were being warned to avoid the downtown area because of street closures and expected massive traffic jams. Shops all around downtown posted security guards to ward off demonstrators, who carried signs ranging from ''Sea Turtles Say No to the WTO,'' to ''Corporate Rule is No Jewel.'' Protesters representing a panoply of causes from labor rights to religious freedom staged several actions throughout the city Monday, some planned and others spontaneous. In one of the most dramatic, two environmental activists dangled from a nine-story-high construction crane by a busy interstate highway and unfurled a banner accusing the WTO of being anti-democratic. Six people were arrested for criminal trespassing and reckless endangerment after that incident, Seattle police spokesman David Ellithorpe said. Police arrested one man and one woman near the city's heavily guarded convention center on charges of assault and obstruction after a group of people tried to serve an ''arrest warrant'' on WTO officials, Ellithorpe said. Scores of protesters dressed as sea turtles rallied outside a church to demonstrate against a WTO ruling they said loosened regulations protecting sea turtles. Others prayed in a show of support for Falun Gong, the embattled Chinese spiritual movement. Several protesters spray-painted graffiti on a Seattle police car, but the overwhelming majority of demonstrators said they were against any violence or vandalism.

To: H James Morris who wrote (85654)	11/29/1999 9:47:00 PM
From: GST	Respond to of 164685

Monday November 29, 9:00 pm Eastern Time U.S. says Japan may sabotage WTO trade round By Adam Entous SEATTLE, Nov 29 (Reuters) - The United States on Monday said Japan threatened a new round of global trade talks with outright failure by demanding that negotiators crack down on U.S. anti-dumping laws that protect domestic industries. ''They're on the brink of torpedoing the whole idea of a new round,'' U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade David Aaron said before World Trade Organization (WTO) members meet in Seattle Nov. 30 to Dec. 3. A growing number of WTO member nations, led by Japan, want the next round of trade negotiations to include a review of anti-dumping laws, which allow the U.S. government to impose punitive duties and tariffs on foreign-made products it deems to be sold at less than production costs. The United States has refused to add dumping to the agenda. A WTO-backed overhaul of the laws would incense politically powerful U.S. industry groups, labor unions and their allies in Congress, who see the rules as their last defense against a surge in cheap imports. Critics of U.S. anti-dumping rules allege that they were being abused by the Clinton administration to prop up U.S. steel companies and other cash-strapped industries facing stiff foreign competition. They also argue that the measures were at odds with President Bill Clinton's stated free-market principles. Japan's former trade minister, Kaoru Yosano, recently warned that U.S. anti-dumping measures could spark a protectionist backlash, and ''undermine our current efforts to further liberalize trade.'' But the Clinton administration has refused to reopen negotiations on its anti-dumping rules, despite growing international pressure. ''We're just not going to do it. We can't do it. We won't do it,'' Aaron said. U.S. officials point to a record trade deficit as proof the U.S. market remains accessible to foreign-made goods. They say the Clinton administration deserves credit for fending off congressional calls for quotas and other extreme anti-trade measures, and that it was hypocritical of Japan and other nations to assail U.S. policies given their own record of dumping goods in the U.S. market at below fair-market value. ''Our trade laws, which are all WTO-consistent, are used very rarely,'' U.S. Commerce Secretary William Daley said. Analysts said the U.S. administration has little choice but to take on Japan and others on dumping. More than 228 U.S. lawmakers have signed onto legislation demanding that Clinton and U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky defend existing anti-dumping laws at the WTO meeting in Seattle. The legislation has more than enough support to pass in the U.S. House of Representatives. Aaron and other U.S. officials said they planned to meet Japanese negotiators on the sidelines of the WTO meeting in Seattle to discuss the dumping issue. ''If they don't back down, then they'll be the ones who sabotage this round,'' Aaron said.

To: H James Morris who wrote (85654)	11/29/1999 9:51:00 PM
From: GST	Respond to of 164685

Union plans to shut down U.S. ports in WTO protest SEATTLE, Nov 29 (Reuters) - A union representing thousands of dock workers said it would shut down cargo movement at all U.S. West Coast ports on Tuesday in solidarity with protesters demonstrating against global trade talks in Seattle. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union said 9,600 of its members would participate in the daylong action. Brian McWilliams, president of the union, said the action was meant to demonstrate the importance of workers to the global economy. ''We are not anti-trade,'' McWilliams said. ''We are against free trade and for fair trade.'' He said fair trade policies should benefit workers, protect the environment and promote democracy. The protest is being held in conjunction with a labor-led mass action by demonstraters who are demanding reforms at the 5-year-old World Trade Organization, which begins ministerial meetings on Tuesday.

To: H James Morris who wrote (85654)	11/29/1999 10:05:00 PM
From: GST	Respond to of 164685

US, other WTO powers want fish subsidies stopped By Robert Evans SEATTLE, Nov 29 (Reuters) - The United States joined a range of rich and poorer powers and a major environmental pressure group on Monday in demanding a World Trade Organization (WTO) accord to end subsidies keeping ailing fishing fleets afloat. The coalition, in the making for the past several months, aims at shaming the 15-nation European Union and Japan in particular into abandoning their multi-billion dollar support programs for the industry. Speakers at a news conference organized by the Swiss-based World Wide Fund for Nature International (WWF) said halting subsidies was the only way to save global fish stocks, a vital source of food, from total destruction. ''These subsidies lead to a myriad of problems,'' declared Jim Sutton, deputy leader of New Zealand's delegation to the WTO's third Ministerial Conference opening in Seattle on Tuesday. ''In addition to depleting the fisheries resource to the point where stock levels cannot be maintained, subsidies distort prices for fish in international markets...,'' Sutton said. ''Equally they impede the potential of developing countries to compete in any fair international markets.'' Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Susan Esserman said an end to subsidies that encouraged over-fishing ''will help protect the environment we hold in trust for future generations.'' But in a statement issued in Seattle, EU farm and fisheries commissioner Franz Fischler rejected the accusations, saying they were based on ''grossly exaggerated figures'' and insisting that the major part of Brussels' subsidies to the industry were aimed at reducing overcapacity. In a report prepared for the Seattle WTO gathering, attended by trade ministers from most of the 135 member countries of the organization, the WWF said tens of billion dollars were spent by governments every year in payments to the fishing industry. These subsidies were the equivalent of between 20 percent and 25 percent of the value of all fish catches landed annually around the globe, the WWF said. ''This scale of subsidization is a huge incentive for companies to expand high-tech fishing fleets and to overfish. Today's global fishing fleet is estimated to be up to two and a half times the capacity needed to sustainably fish the ocean.'' WWF Director-General Claude Martin told the news conference, set up by the body together with Iceland's delegation to the Seattle meeting, that ordinary people would be horrified if they knew how much their governments were spending for this purpose. Similar views were expressed by U.S. Commerce Secretary William Daly, and officials from Australia, New Zealand and Iceland. Iceland's Foreign Affairs Minister Halldor Asgrimsson told the news conference the Ministerial Meeting should agree to start a work program in the WTO to shape commitments and disciplines under enforceable WTO rules that would end fishing subsidies. Other countries backing the proposal, officials said, include Argentina, Peru and Norway. EU and Japanese officials in Seattle recognize the strong feelings among other WTO powers on the issue, but have given little sign that they will agree to negotiate in the WTO. In a news conference on Sunday, EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy indicated that Brussels would prefer to deal with the problem in other international bodies and not the WTO.