SEATTLE MEETS BANGKOK: Where’s the FTAA?

During this post-Seattle period, the FTAA negotiations appear to have been eclipsed by other forums. First it was Davos and then the UNCTAD meetings in Thailand, where the groups from Seattle—international financial institutions, governments or their civil society critics—continued their unconventional “dialogue.” In both Davos and Bangkok, protesters took to the streets once more. The next round of confrontations will be on April 16 in Washington, at the World Bank/IMF meetings. The protests planned for that event have been dubbed “A16” or “Days of Action for Global Economic Justice.”

Despite these turbulent times, the FTAA negotiating groups continue to meet in apparent isolation from the increasingly charged climate. Many skeptics believe that nothing can be accomplished until after the US elections, but sources at the USTR report progress and the continued commitment of the negotiating groups to produce written texts by the end of the year. The situation highlights both the virtues and the shortcomings of the current round of FTAA negotiations: They move ahead technically, but do not have a public outreach program to assess the impact of their decisions on the societies that will later live with the results.