not used with any kind of permission:

> AN ACTIVIST AMONGST THE ROBBER BARONS
>
> [Bruce Silverglade of the Center for Science in the Public Interest
> managed
> to get himself invited to a day-long high-level seminar on "After
> Seattle:
> Restoring Momentum to the WTO." Speakers included Clayton Yeutter
> (former
> Secretary of Agriculture), Robert Litan (former Associate Director of
> the
> White House Office of Management and Budget), Lawrence Eagleburger
> (former
> Secretary of State), and Luiz Felipe Lamreia, the foreign Minster of
> Brazil. His fly-on-the-wall report is worth quoting at some length]:
>
> I was disappointed that only one representative like myself from a
> non-profit organization concerned about the impact of the WTO on food
> safety regulation was invited. But I was pleased that the door had been
> opened and I looked forward to [it].
>
> . . . As it turned out, I got a lot more than I bargained for. The
> seminar
> ~ turned out to be a strategy session on how to defeat those opposed to
> the
> current WTO system. Apparently, no one knew who I was (perhaps my
> graying
> temples and dark suit helped me blend in with the overwhelming older
> male
> group of attendees) and I did not speak up until the end of the meeting.
>
> The meeting was kicked off by a gentleman named Lord Patterson who was
> Margaret Thatcher's Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. He began
> by
> stating that our number one job is to restore confidence in the WTO
> before
> embarking on any new rounds of trade negotiations. So far, so good, I
> thought.
>
> But he then proclaimed that non-profit groups have no right to criticize
> the WTO as undemocratic because the groups themselves do not represent
> the
> general public. (I wondered which groups he was talking about because
> organizations that are gravely concerned about the impact of the WTO on
> environmental and consumer protection, like the Sierra Club and Public
> Citizen, have hundreds of thousands of members). He then stated that we
> must never have another WTO meeting on US soil because it was too easy
> for
> advocacy groups to organize here and security could not be assured . . .
> He
> added that President Clinton's speech during the WTO meeting in Seattle,
> in
> which the president acknowledged the protesters' concerns, was
> "disgraceful" and stated that it was also disgraceful that delegates to
> the
> WTO meeting in Seattle had to survive on sandwiches and couldn't get a
> decent meal during three days of social protest. The Lord finished his
> speech by recalling better times having tea with Maggie, and stating
> that
> the staff of the WTO Secretariat ~ should not be balanced with people
> from
> developing countries just because of the color of their skin. After a
> few
> words with the chairman of the meeting, Lord Patterson added "Oh, I hope
> I
> have not offended anyone."
>
> . . . The largely American audience of trade officials and policy wonks
> took the Lord's pronouncements seriously. The first comment by an
> American,
> picked up on the criticisms and asked 'How can we de-legitimize the
> NGOs?'
> The questioner claimed that these groups are usually supported by just a
> few charitable foundations and if the foundations could be convinced to
> cut
> off funding, the groups would be forced to cease operations. Mr. Litan,
> the
> former White House budget official, had another approach. He [asked]
> can't
> we give the NGOs other sandboxes to play in and have them take their
> concerns to groups like the International Labor Organization (a
> toothless
> United Nations sponsored-group). The representative from the US Trade
> Representative's office said nothing.
>
> . . . Under the banner of rebuilding public confidence in the WTO,
> [former
> Agriculture Secretary] Yeutter concurred with his British colleague's
> suggestion that the next WTO meeting be held in some place other than
> the
> US where security can be assured. He further suggested that the WTO give
> the public little advance notice of where the meeting would be held to
> keep
> the protesters off balance. He said that the protesters' demands for
> greater transparency in WTO proceedings was a misnomer because the
> protesters didn't really want to participate in WTO proceedings -- all
> they
> wanted was to get TV coverage and raise money for their organizations.
>
> . . . The day ended with the usual Washington reception . . . During
> desert, the foreign minister of Brazil lamented that if the next WTO
> meeting had to be held in an out of the way place, he preferred that it
> be
> held on a cruise ship instead of in the middle of the desert. He then
> gave
> an impassioned speech in which he opposed writing core labor standards
> into
> the WTO agreement and defended child labor by describing how in one
> region
> of Brazil, more than 5,000 children "help their families earn a little
> extra money" by hauling bags of coal from a dump yard to a steel mill.
> He
> stressed, however, that the children do not work directly in the steel
> mill. He was greeted by a hearty round of applause.
>