Protesters smashed shop windows
during the World Trade Organization meeting in Montreal.
MONTREAL – Trade ministers from 25 countries – ignoring outbursts of street riots by protesters – worked to find compromises Monday to disputes over agricultural trade, investment and drug prices for the world’s poor.
The ministers were in Montreal at the invitation of Canadian Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew to try to find solutions to problems negotiators and diplomats have so far failed to resolve at the Geneva-based World Trade Organization.
A small group of protesters, opposed to what they consider the enrichment of developed countries at the expense of poor nations, briefly rampaged through downtown Montreal around midmorning, smashing store windows and attacking U.S. symbols.
“Capital is moving across borders with increasing frequency on the backs of the poorest and most marginalized people of the world,” declared one protester, Tony Tracy, who works for the homeless in Toronto.
The protesters smashed windows at a Burger King restaurant and a Gap clothing store on Montreal’s main shopping street and attacked a Canadian Forces recruitment center before police dispersed them after about 45 minutes. Police said they made about 100 arrests.
Negotiators meeting inside a luxury hotel for three days of talks expressed confidence progress could be made in bridging differences before a meeting of all 146 members of the WTO in Cancun, Mexico, in September.
That meeting must make a number of difficult decisions if the WTO is to achieve its aim of completing an international treaty on opening trade by the end of next year.
“People do seem to understand the stakes involved here. We have this opportunity for us to make a major positive contribution to the international economic system,” said Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Peter Allgeier.
When ministers launched the negotiations, in Doha, Qatar, in November 2001, they aimed to make big cuts in import tariffs on goods and services as a way to boost the global economy.
But disagreements remain on how to go about doing it, especially in the sensitive area of agriculture, where the European Union is facing demands to cut its massive farm subsidy program and make big cuts to import tariffs. Brussels says it won’t consider this unless some of its demands are met.
WTO Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi said it’s vital for the negotiations to succeed.
“I see that the round will face difficulties,” he said. “But failure of the round isn’t an option.”
Uruguayan WTO Ambassador Carlos Perez del Castillo, who chairs the body’s General Council, said Montreal would be a chance for countries to start softening their positions.
“I expect signals of possible movements and I expect signals of possible trade-offs,” he said. “In the absence of signals of substantial movement in some key areas like agriculture, I think our task will be very difficult.”
Ministers also must decide whether to start new negotiations in the controversial area of investment rules – a plan supported by most rich nations, but rejected by poor countries who fear they will have no control over foreign multinationals operating on their territory.
Negotiators already acknowledge some of the things they need to do in Cancun will be difficult, if not impossible.
“When ministers concluded Doha, what they actually did was plant a fruit tree,” said Swiss chief negotiator Luzius Wasescha. “They will look at the fruits in Cancun.
“When you try to press a fruit which isn’t ripe, you don’t get juice. We have to look in Cancun to see if the fruit is growing.”
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