Although there will be no new round of global trade talks, at least for the time being, the WTO is forging ahead with ongoing negotiations that were built into its schedule at the end of the Uruguay Round in 1994. Activists working on narrow issues from food safety to forests are now looking to the broader anticorporate globalization coalition to support their causes. Critics say putting biotechnology within the purview of the WTO could limit governments' ability to block or label genetically modified food products. The reversal immediately caused a crisis in Europe. The United States says products should be allowed unless science proves conclusively that they are harmful.
Activists predict the issue is about to explode in the United States.
The FDA is accepting written comments on its biotech policies until Jan. 13. Forests Global timber companies, which have already profited greatly from trade and investment liberalization, are trying to use the WTO to further tear down barriers to their operations. The proposed agreement would also threaten ecolabeling plans, protections against invasive species, and bans on the export of raw logs. The administration publicly dismissed activists' concerns in Seattle and refused to consider the environmental impacts of the proposed tariff liberalization. But activists fear that other pending WTO negotiations, such as those covering agriculture, could threaten forests.