WTO TALKS collapse--CLINTON LOSES--OTHER COUNTRIES BLAME THE UNITED STATES FOR BEHIND THE SCENES DEALS--PROTESTORS WIN--FOREIGN DELEGATIONS FURIOUS THAT THE U.S. PLACED THEM IN DANGER--WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO THE OMNIPOTENCE OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER?

READ EUROPEAN PAPERS--AT LEAST OUR PAPERS TELL PART OF THE TRUTH!

ISSUE 1653 Saturday 4 December 1999

US battles to save trade talks amid flood of rebukes By Charles Clover in Seattle

AMERICAN negotiators were working feverishly last night to prevent the collapse of the World Trade Organisation summit in Seattle.

The British delegation joined in attacking the American chairman, Charlene Barshefsky, who was accused of insensitivity and incompetence by African, Caribbean and Latin American countries. They complained that the US had left them out of discussions.

Latin American and Caribbean countries expressed their "profound surprise and resulting anger" at the lack of organisation and the danger in which the US had placed dignitaries and delegates this week. They also accused America of trying to "stitch up" deals behind closed doors.

The threat of a breakdown in the talks was being taken seriously by British delegates, who were astonished when US officials convened a working group on labour standards which the Pakistan delegate, to applause, claimed was illegal.

There was chaos when the American organisers switched interpreters to the meeting on labour standards, leaving a meeting of African countries unable to proceed. The organisers then compounded the insult by switching their microphones off.

The British delegation believes it was not wise for Ms Barshefsky to combine the role of chairman with that of American chief negotiator, and that Mike Moore, the director general of the WTO, is no longer a credible figure after the shambles of this week.

Stephen Byers, leader of the British delegation, said there was the basis for an agreement on agriculture, committing the EU to a reduction of its export subsidies, the largest in the world, but accepting that some subsidies were acceptable to look after the countryside and provide rural employment. A final flourish of objections by France to the emerging agreement was dismissed as last-minute grandstanding.

Mr Byers said talks on environmental issues, and how they fitted in with WTO rules, were "a mess". A last-ditch lobbying attempt by big business in the United States and Canada to make European regulations governing genetically modified crops subject to WTO sanctions against trade barriers was regarded as unacceptable by the EU, he said.

Meanwhile, Seattle police began freeing some of the 587 protesters arrested this week, after demonstrators marched to King County Jail to demand their release.