Battle of Seattle



Today the film Battle in Seattle debuts in select cities. The film dramatically recounts the WTO protests in Seattle in 1999. In Huffington Post, Irish director Stuart Townsend discusses how his film, which stars Woody Harrelson as well as Charlize Theron and Ray Liotta, was inspired by Anita Roddick and her book Take It Personally.

The WTO is at or near the center of so much consequential policymaking.

But we never put that together, and the media is never gonna put that together for you, either. The WTO enacts legally binding laws. It used to be the GATT, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which was designed to facilitate the flow of free trade and open up borders. The difference between the GATT and the WTO is that the WTO's laws are legally binding. It can put sanctions on you. An example is when Europeans didn't want to have American hormone-fed beef.

I wrote about Battle in Seattle over at Treehugger, WTO: From "Battle In Seattle" To "No News From Geneva"

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