WTO Presses On Despite Protests

Wednesday, December 01, 1999 8:28 AM EDT

SEATTLE (AP) -- Stunned by violent street protests, officials at a 135-nation trade gathering insisted they would push ahead with their effort to launch a new round of talks aimed at breaking down barriers to global commerce.

President Clinton was scheduled to address ministers today in the conference he has been banking on heavily, but was heading into a shattered downtown where officials sought to restore order with an overnight curfew and officers in riot gear.

Washington Gov. Gary Locke ordered as many as 200 members of the National Guard and 300 state troopers to Seattle, where they will serve as backup to police who on Tuesday battled rampaging protesters with tear gas and pepper spray.

``This conference will be a success. The issues are far too important to be ignored,'' said Mike Moore, director general of the World Trade Organization.

WTO delegates long had expected protests, but nothing like the storm that hit Seattle when at least 40,000 activists took to the streets Tuesday. Some 5,000 protesters confronted police, with a handful launching an assault on the downtown business area.

Windows were shattered everywhere from NikeTown to Santa's Village outside of Nordstrom. A Starbucks coffee shop was broken into and looted.

The protests threatened to become a major embarrassment for the Clinton administration. News of the violence generated headlines across Asia today: ``Demonstrators overrun Seattle,'' said a page-one headline in the Times of India, one of India's top national newspapers.

In Tokyo, Yasushi Abe, an official at Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry said he had anticipated protests. ``But the scale of demonstrations and reported violence were beyond imagination,'' Yasushi Abe said in an interview in Tokyo.

The protesters are unhappy with the Geneva-based organization that sets the rules for global trade, charging that it too often only considers the needs of giant multinational corporations at the expense of protecting the environment and worker rights.

Some of the more moderate opponents want the WTO, the Geneva-based body that sets world trade rules, to include tougher labor and environmental standards in any trade deal -- an idea strongly opposed by developing nations in Asia and Latin America who depend on cheap labor to make economic gains.

Downtown merchants shut their doors as shop windows were beaten in Tuesday. Graffiti was sprayed on walls and trash bins overturned and set afire. Shops were looted and police-car tires slashed.

King County Executive Ron Sims said some protesters boarded transit buses, assaulted drivers and vandalized the vehicles to try to block traffic.

Disappointed WTO officials scrapped morning speeches by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and they headed straight into the first of a series of plenary sessions where all the trade ministers are able to air their concerns.

Later, as trade ministers dined at a gala miles away, police in body armor and gas masks fired tear gas and pepper spray to clear demonstrators from the downtown core. Hundreds ran choking from heavy clouds of gas. As of late Tuesday, 17 minor injuries were reported. Mayor Paul Schell said 60 people were arrested.

White House press secretary Joe Lockhart said Clinton ``has said that he believes the people there protesting have a legitimate point of view and should be heard inside and outside the hall.''

While the vast majority of protesters were peaceful, Clinton condemned those who chose violence. ``That's wrong,'' Lockhart said.

``Despite the problems with the ceremonial events, the substantive work goes on,'' Lockhart said. ``Our team believes we've made some progress today.''

Mohammed Asfour, the Jordanian minister of industry and trade, said he was kept away from the opening ceremony Tuesday.

``People like us who came from thousands of miles and to find no organization -- it's very sad,'' Asfour said.

Kingsley Layne, the ambassador to the United States from the tiny Caribbean nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, was distressed to find he was in an area marked off by a state of emergency in this normally peaceful northwestern city.

``We knew before we came here there were plans to have well-coordinated demonstrations,'' Layne said. ``I'm a little surprised by the outcome.''

Layne called the debacle ``one of many'' embarrassments for the Clinton administration.

A surprised Clinton administration official conceded late Tuesday that the protesters may have won the opening round of the four days of discussions. But he said Clinton would succeed in seizing the policy high ground today.

``The president is very much looking forward to his visit here, to speaking to the people of Seattle, to the people of the United States,'' Gene Sperling, the president's chief economic adviser, told reporters.

The Clinton administration has pushed for the WTO to consider environmental and worker safeguards when trade agreements are negotiated. But more than 100 of the WTO's 135 member nations are developing countries who have vowed to adamantly resist including these items in the upcoming round of global negotiations expected to be launched at these meetings.

Albright flew home to Washington after she was unable to address the ministers. They were unable to open their session on time Tuesday, as thousands of protesters turned out, some chaining themselves together and lying down in roads to block official motorcades.

Schell thanked the many demonstrators who showed restraint and pleaded for nonviolence. ``It's unfortunate that a few of them did not have the same agenda,'' he said.

``Nobody could be happy about what happened today,'' said Schell, who apologized to WTO ministers ``for their inconvenience.''