Who sank the WTO?
More fingers are beginning to point at Bill Clinton. In yesterday’s Washington Post, former Bush trade official Robert Zoellick says the president “straddled and stumbled” by choosing to host the World Trade Organization “without laying the political groundwork globally and without developing a negotiating strategy.” There was a strategy. It involved enlisting the weaker members against Europe. But it all fell apart when Clinton told the Post-Intelligencer he expected that labor standards would someday be enforceable in trade agreements. His own negotiator had been saying the opposite. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky had also been promising that all the weak countries would be at the table of power for the first time, unless there was a problem reaching a deal. But such a problem ensued, and the newly empowered ministers were booted out. The other problem was the president’s reaction to the protesters. “They are knocking on the door here, saying, let us in and listen to us,” C
