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<DIV><B>From:</B> <A title=unnikru@yahoo.com
href="mailto:unnikru@yahoo.com">UNNIKRISHNAN PV (Dr)</A> </DIV>
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<DIV>
<P>WTO: Protesters Vow to Derail WTO Meetings</P></DIV><TT>By THE ASSOCIATED
PRESS<BR>CANCUN, Mexico (AP) -- Activists marched in the<BR>streets and stripped
on the beaches in an attempt to<BR>derail a meeting of the World Trade
Organization, at<BR>which representatives of 146 countries will try
to<BR>increase global commerce without throwing millions out<BR>of work.<BR>At a
beach resort best known for turquoise surf and<BR>drunken U.S. college students,
trade ministers huddled<BR>in conference rooms of five-star hotels in
preparation<BR>for the meeting, which begins Wednesday.<BR>Away from the hotel
zone, thousands of<BR>anti-globalization activists from around the world
set<BR>up camp, renting hammocks and swatting mosquitoes, and<BR>vowed to derail
the meetings with protests and<BR>marches, as they did in Seattle in
1999.<BR>Ministers at the meeting hope to close in on a binding<BR>treaty to
make trade freer throughout most of the<BR>world. Under a WTO agreement, they
are supposed to<BR>approve such a treaty by the end of next year.<BR>Agriculture
will likely be at the top of the Cancun<BR>agenda. Removing barriers to trade in
agriculture is<BR>controversial, with developing nations demanding that<BR>rich
countries like Japan, the United States and<BR>European nations end subsidies
and tariffs designed to<BR>keep unprofitable farms afloat.<BR>Several competing
proposals are being pushed,<BR>including one from the United States and the
European<BR>Union that would create limited cuts in farm subsidies<BR>and
another from a group of developing nations led by<BR>India and Brazil that would
move toward eliminating<BR>the subsidies and opening the markets of
rich<BR>countries to their farm products.<BR>``We need, without any question, to
make some progress<BR>on agriculture, because this is an issue of
great<BR>importance to virtually all our members, and it is an<BR>issue on which
progress in other areas hangs,'' WTO<BR>spokesman Keith Rockwell
said.<BR>Ministers also will consider whether to open their<BR>economies to more
foreign investment -- which some say<BR>will drive local producers out of
business -- and how<BR>to cut tariffs on industrial goods without
shuttering<BR>factories and spurring unemployment.<BR>Anti-globalization
activists, farmers and labor rights<BR>promoters planned a week of protests,
saying trade can<BR>also increase poverty, encourage mistreatment of<BR>workers
and the environment and diminish cultural<BR>diversity.<BR>Thousands of
protesters already were in Cancun.<BR>Organizers said they hoped some 15,000
protesters<BR>would participate in the week of action against
the<BR>WTO.<BR>Although organizers have said they want to shut down<BR>the
talks, they also pledged to avoid violence.<BR>``We are not here to throw sticks
or stones,'' said<BR>Rafael Alegria, international secretary of the
farm<BR>group Via Campesina. ``We are here to send a clear and<BR>ringing
message: Take agriculture out of the WTO<BR>talks.''<BR>In one of the first
protests Monday, 29 activists<BR>stripped off their clothes on a public beach
and<BR>spelled out ``No WTO'' in the sand with their bodies.<BR>Protesters will
be kept away from the meeting venue.<BR>Only one road down the narrow peninsula
leads to the<BR>meeting site, and police likely will block it if<BR>protesters
try to march down it.<BR><BR><BR></TT><BR><!-- |**|begin egp html banner|**| -->
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