WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999

Location map
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lat = 47.61
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width = 320The WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 was a meeting of the World Trade Organization, convened at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington, USA, over the course of three days, beginning November 30, 1999. A week before the meeting, delegates admitted failure to agree on the agenda and the presence of deep disagreements with developing countries. [ "Pascal Lamy, EU trade commissioner, said yesterday there was a serious risk that the meeting would be unable to launch a world trade round. However, Mike Moore, WTO director-general, said he was still confident that next week's talks would not fail. Weeks of negotiations in the WTO have been unable to bridge deep disagreements, particularly over agriculture and developing countries' concerns about their WTO obligations." —David Wighton "World leaders resist joining Seattle talks", Financial Times, 24 Nov 1999] Intended as the launch of a new round of trade negotiations that would have been called "The Millennial Round", the negotiations were marred by poor organization and controversial management of large street protests. [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/1999/dec/04/wto.johnvidal1 "Week of division on and off streets"–London Guardian, 4/12/1999] ] . Developing country representatives became resentful and uncooperative on being excluded from talks as the United States and the European Union attempted to cement a mutual deal on agriculture. The negotiations collapsed and were reconvened at Doha, Qatar, in November 2001. The Doha venue enabled on-site public protest to be excluded. Necessary agenda concessions were made to include the interests of developing countries, which were learning how to form their own powerful negotiating blocs. Thus, the current round is called the Doha Development Round.

Views on the conference

According to "Seattle Post-Intelligencer" sports columnist Art Thiel, the Seattle establishment had lobbied hard for the event, but the populace of the city were not generally supportive of them in this. As the conference was coming to a close, Thiel wrote, "We blew this WTO gig. Big time. Because our civic ego ran amok. […] Somewhere, somehow, there has been created a profound disconnect between our wealth-enamored leadership and the vast majority of Puget Sound-area residents. […] [T] here was no debate on WTO, only a wink and a pat on the head from the poobahs." [Art Thiel, [http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/thiel/thie033.shtml Seattle will remember when we blew it with the WTO gig] , "Seattle Post-Intelligencer", December 3, 1999.]

A feature film, titled "Battle in Seattle", is based on the riots and will be released in September 2008. It stars Charlize Theron, Woody Harrelson, Ray Liotta, Michelle Rodriguez, Joshua Jackson, and Connie Nielsen. The name is taken from the colloquial term "Battle in Seattle" for the conference.

See also

* WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 protest activity

Notes

External links

* [http://www.wcit.org/resources/wto_archives/wto/pre_ministerial/wto_press_releases/wto_pr_selected_host.htm Seattle Selected to Host WTO] , Washington Council on International Trade, January 25, 1999.
* [http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/international/jan-june00/seattle_1-18.html Seattle Aftermath] , Online NewsHour, January 18, 2000.
* "Seattle Weekly" Editors [http://www.seattleweekly.com/news/0031/news-editors.php Answering WTO's big questions] , "Seattle Weekly", August 2, 2000.