Report from Seattle - Thursday, December 2, 1999 Campaigns Co-ordinator Jo Dufay
Day Five - Negotiations and Trade-offs

The downtown core of Seattle returned to some kind of normal life yesterday, as police controls there relaxed and a few stores re-opened -- although there were far more police than customers. Protests continued outside of this area. Twenty-five blocks were still heavily controlled, although by
Friday morning this was reduced to 16 blocks. More than 500 protestors from Tuesday and Wednesday were still being held in jail, and reports of poor treatment and
denial of rights are filtering out. Inside the WTO talks, intense negotiations carried on
through the night into Friday morning, in an effort to squeeze out agreement.
The rich countries appeared to make trade-offs with each other while developing countries came under intense pressure to drop their concerns and allow a new round of talks to proceed.

There is much speculation about whether (or when) the talks might produce agreement on a statement outlining the agenda for a new round of talks.
Most speculate that a weak agreement will be delivered sometime on Friday, with much fanfare. The content will almost certainly be far from that originally intended; the WTO was hoping to launch a cruise liner, but instead will be lucky to get a tug-boat out of this meeting. It is even possible that some of the areas will be referred for further discussion in Geneva, away from the public spotlight.

Developing countries yesterday stood firm in their opposition to many of the provisions sought by the U.S. and others, and were clearly feeling intense pressure from the rich nations. U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky, who is chairing the conference, was quite blunt in her admission that most countries of the world will 
be excluded from the working groups if they fail to make agreements. In that case, 
a handful of countries will negotiate the agreement for the entire meeting.

Friday will be a key day. Watch for news throughout the day.

Victoria Gibb-Carsley
National Organizer
The Council of Canadians
vgibb-carsley@canadians.org
1-800-387-7177
Phone: 613-233-4487 ext 228
Fax: 613-233-6776
Website: www.canadians.org