December 1, 1999
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (contacts wto@rtmark.com,
jean-guy.carrier@wto.org, enquiries@wto.org)
WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION DECLARES HATRED FOR WTO/GATT
The World Trade Organization, the principal organization in charge
of enforcing the rules of global commerce, has issued a press release
stating that it is "deeply concerned" about WTO/GATT's "illegal and
unfair" website, http://gatt.org/.
In the release, WTO
Director-General Mike Moore accuses WTO/GATT of attempting to
"undermine WTO transparency" by copying the WTO website's design and
using "domain names such as 'www.gatt.org' and page titles such as
'World Trade Organization / GATT Home Page' which make it difficult
for visitors to realize that these are fake pages."
WTO/GATT spokesperson Ray Thomas says that, on the contrary,
http://gatt.org/ is much clearer than http://www.wto.org/.
"Following any of the Gatt.org links--or reading any of the text--
will make clear our interpretation of what the WTO is about, and
that WTO/GATT is behind the site. Mike Moore must have a very low
opinion of people to think they won't figure it out."
It is the WTO, according to Thomas, that is misleading. "They claim
to be 'transparent' because their site includes thousands of
official documents and the minutes of many meetings, but who could
possibly have the patience to read any of that, besides corporate
planners? All anyone actually sees is their bold declarations that
they're 'delivering better living standards for everyone,' or
somewhat bizarre assurances that 'The WTO is not a world government
and no one has any intention of making it one'... but the site
doesn't even mention the violent riots in Seattle, London, etc.,
nor the reasons they're happening." [Links to news about the
violence and some of its reasons can be found at http://gatt.org/.]
Thomas said that while the WTO admits on its front page the obvious
truth that free trade has resulted in environmental catastrophe--
"The growing world economy has been accompanied by environmental
degradation, including deforestation, losses in bio-diversity,
global warming, air pollution, depletion of the ozone layer,
overfishing and so on"--this openness is illusory.
"WTO.org says that the WTO response to environmental catastrophe
is to do 'new studies,'" said Thomas. "But as you can read at
Gatt.org, what Moore says in the press is that freer trade will
lead to higher living standards, which will in turn make for a
cleaner environment. It's incredibly bad logic at every step,
and it's what has created this disaster in the first place."
Explaining this sort of trickery is Gatt.org's reason for being, said
Thomas. "We're just making the WTO a little bit more transparent--for
example, to help explain why the WTO prevents democratic governments
from imposing sanctions based on human rights abuses, or from
including economics in their foreign policy at all."
WTO/GATT found out about the WTO release, dated November 23, from Jean-
Guy Carrier, the WTO's Manager of Information Technologies for
Development. In an e-mail dated November 24, Carrier writes:
"Greetings, to be accurate you should update your WTO clone site to
include the text of the news release deploring efforts such as your
to confuse the public. Any honest group with information and sincere
views to convey usually does so without having recourse to
subterfuge and deception. Others such as yourselves consider they
are above all that. Too bad." In another, to a news service
advertised on the Gatt.org site, Carrier encourages the service to
withdraw its sponsorship; in another one week later, he accuses
WTO/GATT of having "little regard for any law." (Carrier can be
reached at jean-guy.carrier@wto.org.)
Director-General Moore shows a similar tone in the release: "It's
ironic that while the WTO is accused of lacking transparency, some
critics who put out misleading or false information are camouflaging
their identities."
Thomas says that by accusing WTO/GATT of not playing by the rules,
Moore and Carrier seem to be implying that the WTO and WTO/GATT are
equal opponents in the same game. "We're supremely flattered that
the WTO is acting as if WTO/GATT were its equal," said Thomas, "but
it's ironic that they're so upset. Despite the neo-liberal myth of
equal opportunity for all, the WTO is not enjoying this little
dialogue. They'd rather just shut us up."
http://gatt.org/ is not the first time that WTO/GATT (http://rtmark.com/)
has used website imitation to render an entity more transparent.
WTO/GATT has performed the same service for George W. Bush (with
GWBush.com, archived at http://rtmark.com/bush.html), Rudy Giuliani
(http://yesrudy.com/), Shell Oil (http://rtmark.com/shell/), and
others. WTO/GATT's principal aim is to publicize corporate abuses of
democratic processes.