[asia-apec 1206] GATT Watchdog on Mike Moore and WTO

[Gatt Watchdog]

GATT Watchdog
PO Box 1905
Christchurch 8015
Aotearoa (NZ)


             Media Release For Immediate Use
21 July 1999

One small step for Mr Moore, one giant leap towards dismantling the WTO

News that Mike Moore has been informally approved at a meeting of the WTO
General Council to take over the role of WTO Director-General will be too late
to fix the deep fissures among the 134-member organisation, says GATT
Watchdog.

"But we think he's undoubtedly the best man for the job.  Mr Moore has always
proved to be at the extreme end of the spectrum in ideological fervour about
free trade and investment.  At a time when people are questioning the drive to
speed up and expand economic liberalisation, with APEC looking so fragile that
it has lost almost all credibility with free marketeers and critics alike,
having a true believer in the globalisation gospel as the figurehead of the
WTO will be very helpful in bringing things to a head and will no doubt speed
up our own goal of delegitimising and dismantling the WTO and other forums
which promote market models of economic development as if they are the only
alternative." says Aziz Choudry, a spokesman for the coalition, which has
campaigned against the GATT/WTO for a decade.

"Despite the claims that Mr Moore and his fellow travellers make about
globalisation, the narrow economic dogma that the WTO promotes and enforces
is contributing to conflicts around the world, from the US-EU banana dispute,
to the spread of communal violence in many countries hit by austerity measures
and economic liberalisation, to the ongoing conflict in Chiapas, Mexico in the
wake of the coming into force of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Many of them have their roots in the increasing global economic instability
and inequity between and within nations as a result of the acceleration of
free market, trade and investment measures which the WTO promotes."

"Those tensions will colour the upcoming APEC Leaders Circus in Auckland, and
the so-called Millennium Round of WTO negotiations when it kicks off in
Seattle this November."

"The apparent WTO leadership compromise solution merely glosses over the
divisions, marginalisation and frustration among a growing number of countries
who have been questioning who benefits from existing commitments to economic
liberalisation.  Naturally, the New Zealand Government and others who still
believe in freemarket fairy tales do not want to deal with this. And the Mike
Moore WTO story gives Jenny Shipley's beleaguered spin doctors another chance
to try and woo a public grown weary of wild and wacky promises about free
trade in the weeks prior to the APEC Summit, without dealing with any of the
real issues."

"There is already pressure from "developed" nations to expand the GATT/WTO
agriculture, services and intellectual property agreements, and to introduce
issues like competition policy, government procurement, and possibly try to
resurrect an MAI-style agreement on investment within the WTO.  By contrast,
a number of Third World governments have repeatedly expressed their
scepticism and concern about the supposed benefits of existing trade and
investment liberalisation commitments, and warn that a new negotiating round
with new issues will further marginalise them."

"Look at the US track record on trade - one of Mr Moore's strongest backers.
It bullies the rest of the world to open up their markets, yet consistently
refuses to follow the same economic recipe itself.  That is the reality of the
multilateral trade framework under the WTO - protection for the powerful -
market discipline, regardless of the costs, for the rest", said Mr Choudry. 

For further comment, ph Aziz Choudry, GATT Watchdog (03) 3662803