Sierra Club On It's WTO Activities

[Brad De Long]

>J. Barkley Rosser, Jr. wrote:
>
>>       "Bad trade policies"?  Do these include ending
>>any exports from the US, or only those from LDCs
>>identified by the "movement," that is the AFL-CIO
>>and US-based enviro NGOs?  Just who is it who is
>>to "democratically" decide which are the "good" and
>>which are the "bad" trade policies?
>
>Really, Barkley, where do you get your info from? Hundreds of 
>thousands of people have demonstrated against the WTO in places like 
>India and the Philippines. There were people from all over the world 
>in Seattle. Cease this posturing and offer some evidence for your 
>deeply conventional claims.
>
>Doug

Except they are demonstrating against the WTO for different reasons. 
The main complaint from, say, India is that under the WTO the first 
world hasn't taken the steps they promised to take to open their 
markets--they have followed the letter and not the spirit. The main 
complaint from the steelworkers and the turtle-lovers is that under 
the WTO too many people get to export to the U.S.

It's like the great IMF refunding debate or the peso support 
package--half the critics saying that things should be more 
globalized, and half the people saying that things should be less 
globalized...

Brad DeLong