With much riding on the outcome of the talks, the Clinton administration defended its decision to invite trade ministers from around the world to the Pacific Northwest in hopes of launching a new round of global trade talks.
Commerce Secretary William Daley said the administration's embrace of the global marketplace and lower trade barriers has contributed to booming U.S. exports and the country's longest peacetime economic expansion.
"This economy is strong ... and it will remain strong because of the sort of outward view we've had about trade, not an inward view," Daley told Reform Party presidential hopeful Pat Buchanan in a joint appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Critics such as Teamsters head James Hoffa and Buchanan contend the WTO is sacrificing worker rights, environmental protection and human rights in order to please multinational corporations that want trade barriers erased.
Hoffa, whose union is among the labor groups organizing protests in Seattle, said on "Fox News Sunday" the demonstrators simply want a "seat at the table" to ensure the WTO stops putting "corporate greed, corporate profits, above human rights."
Buchanan denounced the administration for agreeing to support China's entry into the WTO in return for reduced Chinese trade barriers. U.S. farmers and manufacturers long have complained that those barriers are costing them billions of dollars in lost sales each year.
"This was a complete and total giveaway," Buchanan said. "We got nothing in the way of human rights improvement, nothing in the way of a build-down of the missiles aimed at Taiwan, nothing in the way of reduced belligerence for this country."
11-29-99
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