Clinton, speaking in New Zealand at the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation trade summit of Pacific Rim leaders, also called on the WTO, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund to drop their veils of secrecy. People see layoffs, not payoffs, when it comes to trade. In the past month, Japan's two biggest breweries, a major Mexican corn tortilla maker, and a large U.S. pet food maker said they would no longer use certain genetically modified corn varieties. U.S. activists have started following the lead of European enviros, uprooting fields of gene-altered plants during midnight raids at company test plots in California, Maine, Minnesota, and Vermont. After six days of negotiations that ended on Saturday, the biggest unresolved issue is how to deal with DDT, which many health officials want to continue to use to kill malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
Agreement also has yet to be reached on PCBs, dioxins, and furans.
World Wildlife Fund accused the U.S. and Australia of pressing for loopholes to weaken the treaty. Negotiators will meet again next spring in Bonn, Germany, and later next year in South Africa, hoping to have a treaty ready for signing in 2001. All rights reserved.