At the WTO's first Ministerial Conference, held in Singapore in December 1996, delegates from developing countries complained at being excluded from what were clearly 'behind the scenes' discussions - a charge accepted by the WTO's Director General at the time, Renato Ruggiero. While the WTO claims that its rules-based system is a means of protecting smaller nations from the larger trading powers, many of those smaller nations have complained of being bullied by the very countries which set the rules in the first place. While some developing countries, particularly in Latin America and East Asia, may be able to compete in the WTO's brave new world, the world's least developed countries are predicted to lose out. Even in richer countries, the expansion of TNCs has a negative impact on smaller businesses, labour standards and basic freedoms. A growing international movement is forming in protest against the WTO and its expanding 'free' trade agenda - all eyes are on the WTO's Third Ministerial Conference, to be held in Seattle from 30 November to 3 December 1999, which will set the tone for world trade into the 21st century.
Undercurrents offers an alternative view of what happened.
The process, events and positions.