NEWS - Manila Protesters March on U

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Subject: NEWS - Manila Protesters March on US Embassy to Protest Seattle Talks

Title: Manila Protesters March on US Embassy to Protest Seattle Talks
Author: Agence France-Presse
Date: 30-Nov-1999
Source: clari.news.protests
Style: Mainstream news article

MANILA - About 1,500 people marched on the US embassy here Tuesday to
protest global trade talks in Seattle that they say will further
impoverish the country's small farmers. 
   
"Fight the US imperialists," shouted demonstrators belonging to the left
wing New Nationalist Alliance, or Bayan. 
   
The protesters tore a large banner painted the red, white and blue of
the American flag, which they said was symbolic of their desire to break
away from the US-dominated World Trade Organization (WTO). 
   
Their placards read: "Take agriculture out of WTO" and "No to WTO." 
   
Anti-riot police and a fire truck guarded the embassy but no violent
incidents were reported, police and witnesses said. 
   
"The country's four years of membership in the WTO had only worsened the
state of Philippine agriculture and industry," Bayan said in a
statement. 
   
"The dismantling of tariffs and other trade barriers as dictated by the
WTO left thousands of Filipinos jobless, displaced thousands of peasants
and led Filipino small-and medium-scale businesses to close shop." 
   
The group's secretary general, Teodoro Casino, said the Philippine
Senate in 1994 ratified the General Agreements of Tariffs and Trade --
which gave birth to the WTO -- because of a promise it would result in
500,000 new jobs a year in agriculture and 587,000 for industry. 
   
"Today, we are witness to the betrayal of that promise," Casino told the
crowd. 
   
The Seattle talks are expected to set the agenda for a new round of
negotiations to further liberalize global trade, especially in
agricultural products -- a sensitive sector in Asia's farm-dependent
developing nations. 
   
Developing countries in the region have complained the Seattle talks are
heavily biased in favor of Europe and North America, which call the
trade shots by virtue of their economic power.