By PATRICK McDOWELL / Associated Press Writer
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Spurred by a sense of crisis since the turmoil of the World Trade Organization summit in Seattle, some 180 nations are meeting in Bangkok this week to shape the global economy.
But as leaders and ministers talk and ponder, globalization is happening a mouse-click, a share trade and a takeover at a time.
Governments and international bodies like the United Nations acknowledge they aren't sure how to keep up -- much less control -- a phenomenon that is really led by companies, not treaties.
"The process of globalization is being driven by the activities of private enterprise," said Rubens Ricupero, secretary general of the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development.
"This has contributed to the increasing vulnerability and instability of large parts of the world economy," Ricupero said.
UNCTAD, which promotes trade to help develop poor countries, opens its four-yearly meeting Saturday under the greatest scrutiny in its 36-year history, precisely because of uncertainty over how to get a grip on globalization.
The week-long meeting will bring together the leaders of Japan and Southeast Asian nations, plus trade ministers and development officials from most other countries.
Though UNCTAD does not have the power to negotiate and enforce treaties like the WTO, the two groups cover many of the same issues and Ricupero hopes the meeting will bring talks on world trade deal out of their paralysis since the Seattle summit.
Still, globalization is happening without new treaties or government legislation. Consider a few recent events pointing to a more interconnected world economy:
-- IBM Corp. is forging a deal with Asian Internet providers to develop electronic business tools for companies in the region. Asia, where the Internet has barely taken off, is considered to have great potential over the next few years.
-- Top U.S. business executives pressure congressmen not to block China's entry into the WTO. Bringing China's vast potential markets into a rules-based trading system is a dream of U.S. multi-nationals.
-- Britain's Vodafone-Airtouch mobile phone company pulls off the biggest takeover in history, taking over Mannesmann of Germany. The $181 billion deal could signal a new era of hostile, cross-border takeovers in the European Union.
-- Corn-chip maker Frito-Lay Inc. tells suppliers not to use genetically altered corn, responding to consumer concerns that such foods may be unsafe. The move by one of America's biggest snack-makers undermines Washington's case in the WTO that genetically altered foods are safe, disputed by the E.U. and developing world.
The non-governmental organizations -- environmentalists, trade unions, human-rights groups -- who crystalized world fears about global economic changes in Seattle criticize the WTO as a rich man's club run by elites without input from ordinary people.
They were invited by UNCTAD to present proposals for this week's conference. Many reject free trade and urge new rules to take greater account of poor people and poor countries.
The Geneva-based Inter-Parliamentary Union, which brings together lawmakers from 139 countries, believes greater involvement of elected representatives would give globalization a more human face.
"Sure, you can just throw your hands in the air and say, 'We can't do anything about it,'" said Anders B. Johnsson, IPU secretary-general. "National and transnational corporations have a tremendous amount of power these days."
"But that being so, what you heard in Seattle makes it all the more imperative to address and legislate on these issues," Johnsson said.:
