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SUNS #4615 Monday 28 February 2000

south-north development monitor SUNS [Email Edition]

contents

Trade: US corporate gravy train held WTO illegal (Chakravarthi Raghavan, Geneva)

Trade: WTO defeat lands US in tight spot (IPS, Washington)

Development: Mahathir warns of world conquest through globalization (Lean Ka-Min, Penang)

Development: World trade accelerating environmental damage (Someshwar Singh, Geneva)

India: Lawyers protest globalisation move (IPS, New Delhi)

United Nations: Novel initiative in favour of Indigenous Groups (IPS, Geneva)


TRADE: US CORPORATE GRAVY TRAIN HELD WTO ILLEGAL

Geneva, 25 Feb (Chakravarthi Raghavan) -- The ruling by the appellate body of the World Trade Organization that the US Foreign Sales Corporation (FSC) Law provides US corporations prohibited subsidies for their exports and must be changed, not only puts the United States on the spot but has the potential to damage further the credibility of the WTO and mobilise civil society against any expansion of WTO's remit.

The US administration, under the Uruguay Round implementation law, is obliged to provide an assessment to Congress by 1 March, of the benefits (and costs) to the US from the membership of the WTO. And there is an automatic trigger process, by which Congress could vote to take the US out of the WTO, and a Presidential veto could be overridden. The US is the biggest beneficiary from the WTO. Nevertheless US public opinion, some senescent industries (like steel, textiles and clothing) as also organized labour and environmental lobbies, are ranged against it.

Now the US corporate defenders will be on the spot - whether to campaign and mobilise Congress in favour of the largesse (and thus strengthen the fight against the WTO) or give up their subsidies.

 


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