Zoellick: U.S. to Push Trade Reform (Bashes Developing Countries)

[Khephra]

Zoellick: U.S. to Push Trade Reform
Mon September 22, 2003 07:16 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - The United States is to push ahead with plans to open global markets, but will only do so by negotiating bilaterally with like-minded countries, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said Monday.

In an article published in Britain's Financial Times newspaper, Zoellick said he also blamed developing countries for moving this month's World Trade Organization (WTO) talks in Cancun to collapse because they were interested more in making a political statement than advancing the cause of free trade.

"The key division at Cancun was between the can-do and the won't do (countries)," Zoellick said.

"As WTO members ponder their future, the U.S. will not wait: we will move toward free trade with can-do countries," he added.

more...................

http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=3484187

[IrateCitizen]

1. And this is the reason why even a globalization critic such as myself...

... has come to see the need for the WTO to be reformed and strengthened as an international institution, rather than simply scrapped. The end result of its demise will be the return of bilateral trade deals that will be more destructive for developing nations than the WTO ever was (as hard as that would have been for me to believe just 1 year ago).

Of course, the IMF is another matter, and I would be perfectly happy to see its rapid demise.... along with a serious overhaul of the World Bank -- like putting it under direct UN authority, for one.

[damnraddem]

2. Those naughty developing nations: more interested in ...

their own economic survival than unregulated free trade! We just can't allow such behavior -- after all, what if Americans started acting on their own best interests rather than sheepishly following the demands of the corporate elite! Why, the Bushistas could be in trouble!