Re: Cancun implications

[Jacob Levich <jlevich@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Bello's probably correct in blaming the United States and Europe for the
WTO debacle. Strange, therefore, that he sees it as a great victory over
the US. Presumably the US blew up the WTO for the same reason it's cutting
the UN loose -- it would rather have the freedom to make ad hoc bilateral
deals, always negotiating from strength, than feel constrained by any kind
of international law or regulation. That'll make it easy for the US to
undermine G21, which in any event represents not the people but reactionary
national elites -- Vajpayee coming across as the hero of Cancun is a dead
giveaway.  Hate to see the Global Justice types falling for this.

I expect the bilateral wheeling and dealing is already going on, especially
after Bush's kiss-off to the General Assembly yesterday. The US, like any
empire, needs mercenary soldiers and will buy them from "New Europe" and
the Third World, in exchange for huge chunks of Iraq's non-oil assets. That
is the logic behind Bremer's surprise announcement of the 100% selloff
plan. It's a fire sale, and the currency is warm bodies.

jake

At 11:35 AM 9/24/2003 -0400, you wrote:
> Implications of Cancun
>
> by Walden Bello
> September 23, 2003
>
> The collapse of the Fifth Ministerial of the World Trade Organization
> (WTO) in Cancun, Mexico, last Sunday, Sept. 14, was an event of historic
> proportions.




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