WTO Conference Talks: What Went Wrong?
Protesters Continue Cause In Seattle And Portland
The collapse of the effort to launch a new round of global trade talks left the United States and 134 other nations searching for answers Saturday over what went wrong and how to fix it.
"The WTO really needs reform," an exhausted Pascal Lamy, the European Union's trade commissioner, told a news conference early Saturday. He spoke shortly after the talks had collapsed following four days of marathon bargaining.
Lamy, a Frenchman, pointedly noted that he was not a Johnny-come-lately to this view. He warned throughout the week that the WTO's organizational flaws could doom the effort to launch new negotiations for lowered trade barriers in agriculture, manufactured goods and services such as banking.
In the end, he was proved right. U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky was forced to concede as much in her own closing news conference.
Elsewhere in Seattle, the protests aren't quite done.
About 200 people have been demonstrating outside the King County Jail, calling for the release of arrested protesters who are still being held. A jail spokesman says about 300 of the more than 500 people arrested on misdemeanor charges have been released or cleared for release so far.
But the spokesman says some people cleared for release -- fewer than 50 -- are refusing to leave.
Meantime, a small demonstration is over at a vacant downtown apartment building that activists had taken over, demanding it be converted to housing for the homeless.
Seattle officials are now trying to get shoppers to return to the downtown area. Mayor Paul Schell told a news conference today that it's time to "heal the city."
In Portland, about 200 people gathered to continue to protest the tear-gassing of Seattle protesters, marching from Pioneer Courthouse Square to the Salmon Street Springs and back. Demonstrations were peaceful, just as the organizers planned, says KOIN 6 News.
