Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 November 2000
[We] must ensure that ordinary citizens in all countries actually benefit from tradeÑa trade that...protects the environment.
President William J. Clinton
State of the Union Address, 19 January 1999
The hullabaloo that was the World Trade Organization's milleniummeeting in Seattle has shown us that ordinary people have serious misgivingsabout the multilateral trading regime-both the rules and the process.Future progress in trade liberalization will depend on convincing thewider public that trade agreements are good for the environment andgood for development (including labour and human rights), not just GDP.This is more than a public relations challenge. The concerns voiced by theSeattle protesters-some of them, anyway-raise profound intellectualquestions.