[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 82 (Monday, June 26, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1116]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




WITHDRAWING APPROVAL OF UNITED STATES FROM AGREEMENT ESTABLISHING WORLD 
                           TRADE ORGANIZATION

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. FORTNEY PETE STARK

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 21, 2000

  Mr. STARK. Mr. Speaker, with the Senate's impending vote to grant 
China permanent normal trade relations, and its anticipated passage, I 
oppose H.J. Res. 90, to withdraw Congressional approval of the 
agreement establishing the World Trade Organization (WTO). 
Relinquishing annual review of China's normal trade relations status 
leaves the WTO as our last resort to ensure that China abides by its 
agreements. Unfortunately, our means of last resort is unreliable and 
serves the interests of multinational corporations over the interests 
of consumers, workers and the environment. While I oppose the 
resolution before us today, I am far from offering my support of the 
world body that is supposed to serve U.S. interests.
  The biggest problem with the WTO is the way in which the U.S. and our 
trading partners have developed a narrow definition of trade. Trade 
encompasses labor, environmental standards, and consumers as well as 
the industries that manufacture the products for trade. It is high time 
that the WTO, with strong U.S. leadership, take into account the 
interests of the environment, consumers, workers and the oppressed when 
making the rules for trade. The WTO is in desperate need of reform. The 
U.S. is the largest beneficiary of trade. Meaningful reform will occur 
when the U.S. insists on meaningful reform in trade negotiations and in 
the world body that enforces the trade agreements.
  Under Article XX(b) of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 
(GATT), a WTO member country may defend its environmental policy if it 
is ``necessary to protect human, animal or plant life and health.'' But 
in two cases--the Tuna-Dolphin and the Shrimp-Turtle cases--the WTO 
ruled that U.S. statute to prevent import of tuna or shrimp from 
countries that do not comply with U.S. law to protect dolphins and 
turtles, is in violation of the international trade agreement. Clearly, 
this exception clause is ineffective. The goal of the WTO must be to 
strengthen global environmental standards, not weaken them.
  Many developing countries have traditionally excluded food and 
medicine from their intellectual property rights laws in order to 
ensure that these basic necessities are accessible and affordable and 
not subject to private monopoly control. Under the WTO's Trade Related 
Aspect of Intellectual Property (TRIPs), however, corporations are able 
to maintain a 20-year monopoly on patents that are often funded through 
public sponsorship such as the medications to treat AIDs. The United 
Nations Development Program (UNDP) criticized the TRIPs Agreement in 
its 1999 Human Development Report. UNDP has determined that TRIPs rules 
prevent developing countries from obtaining the seeds for crops and 
prevents them from manufacturing affordable medicines. Corporations or 
individuals in industrialized countries currently hold 97 percent of 
all patents worldwide. While the developed world holds the majority of 
these patents, 95 percent of the AIDs victims reside in the developing 
world. Those who hold the patents hold a greater interest and influence 
in the proceedings of the WTO, while those who need the patents are not 
represented at all. Clearly, this is unfair and reforms are needed to 
correct this harmful unbalance in representation.
  The developed world makes the rules. The developed world must start 
to make these rules with the suffering of billions of fellow humans in 
mind. It will take the leadership of the United States to make 
consumers a priority when reforming and creating the rules under which 
we trade. We must give a voice to the voiceless. We can do this by 
continuing our membership in the World Trade Organization and seeking 
to change that organization.

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