“WTO rules and procedures have been used repeatedly to attack environmental laws that our organizations have worked for decades to create, strengthen and protect.”

—Letter from 14 environmental organizations to US President Clinton, July 1999

Protect Environmental Laws / World Trade Organization - Victory

The World Trade Organization (WTO) was established in 1995 to enforce global trade agreements. Its goal is to remove all barriers to trade. When national and local environmental laws are challenged as "barriers" to free trade, the WTO consistently rules against the environment.

Three very popular environmental laws in the United States have been weakened already by WTO rules: the Marine Mammal Protection Act which protected dolphins from being caught and killed by tuna fishing fleets; the Clean Air Act, resulting in weakened air quality standards; and the Turtle-Shrimp Law, a popular provision of the Endangered Species Act which keeps turtles from being caught in shrimp nets (see "Sea Turtles vs. World Trade Organization," below).

These US laws are the tip of the iceberg among popular laws for public health and safety that face challenges in the WTO. Regulations governing hormones in beef, tobacco products, genetically modified foods, and fuel efficiency are also threatened - and not just in the US but throughout the world. The WTO could overturn decades of hard-won legislation gained by environmentalists on every continent.

In November, over 5,000 trade officials from more than 130 nations will converge on Seattle for the WTO’s Third Ministerial meeting. The US and other countries will push for a new "Millennium Round" of negotiations to give the WTO even greater powers. New proposals include:

• The Global Free Logging Agreement, which would eliminate tariffs on forest products. At a time when the world’s native forests are facing extinction, this agreement would increase consumption of paper, pulp and other wood products by 3-4%, according to an industry study.
  
  
• The Multilateral Agreement on Investment was derailed last year by worldwide citizen protests, but it may be revived by the WTO. It would give special powers to multinational corporations and make it harder for municipal, state and national governments to establish human rights, labor and environmental standards as criteria for investors.
  
  

The Seattle meeting will be a showdown! Environmental, human rights, and labor organizers from all continents plan to stage a "massive mobilization" against WTO policies. If you can’t be there, you can write letters!

More information about this issue.

Make a donation for this campaign.

Write a letter for this campaign.

Campaign partner(s) and credits.