AFP GENEVA, March 27
With eight months still to go before the next meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Qatar, the anti-globalisation movement is already busy at work on new protest moves.
But some of its leading figures are showing signs of a less confrontational approach. The latest non-governmental organisation (NGO) here to make its mark is the Global Citizen Initiative (GCI), launched at the weekend with the support of militant French farmers' leader Jose Bove.
He was one of the leading figures in the huge and sometimes violent demonstrations which disrupted the 1999 WTO ministerial meeting in the US city of Seattle.
The protests shocked the authorities and helped to ignite a worldwide movement against economic globalization. It has continued to grow, culminating in a huge operation in February by Swiss police to prevent thousands of demonstrators disrupting the World Economic Forum attended by world leaders in Davos.
But Bove now appears to be changing tack in his anti-WTO campaign, reflecting a less confrontational approach. Instead of calling for the abolition of the WTO, Bove has now refined his demands to a call for major reform of the world trade body.
He acknowledges that many of his supporters will not understand his new position but he says he now believes it is "much more important to negotiate within a multilateral organisation like the WTO than to have a free trade zone such as in the US".
Bove added that it was not a question of having too many regulations but that there were not enough and that those that did exist were not necessarily good ones.
In a launch statement, GCI said it recognised the regulatory role of the WTO, without which trade would operate according to the law of the jungle.
The NGO, which is currently based in Lyon, says its primary objective is to bring expert advice on WTO rules to countries now in the process of joining the organisation, such as Vietnam and China, as well as French-speaking nations in Africa.
According to Bove, this is to enable them to be fully aware of the consequences of signing certain WTO agreements. GCI also wants to be seen as a forum for debate between civil groups, governments and institutions, as well as making recommendations on, for example, the much criticised body which deals with disputes within the WTO.
But the new initiative's declaration that the launch of a fresh round of multilateral WTO negotiations, maybe at Qatar, seems inevitable marks a significant departure from other anti-globalisation NGOs.
These include Third World Network which believes a new round including talks on competition and investment would be "dangerous".
It has called instead on the WTO to concentrate its efforts on renegotiating the agreements made in the Uruguay round covering agriculture, service industries and intellectual property.
Third World Network believes these should be changed to meet the present needs of developing countries.:
