WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999

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The WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 was a meeting of the World Trade Organization, convened at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington, USA over the course of three days, beginning November 30, 1999. Intended as the launch of a new millennial round of trade negotiations that would have been called "The Seattle Round", the negotiations were overshadowed by large street protests outside the venues where the conference was taking place. Because of the disruptions in the Seattle rounds, the negotiations were not formally begun until the next meeting which was held at Doha, Qatar, a locale easier to control and police. Thus the current round is called the Doha Round.

1 Views on the conference
2 See also
3 Notes
4 External links

[edit] Views on the conference

According to Seattle Post-Intelligencer sports columnist Art Thiel, the Seattle establishment had lobbied hard for the event, but the populace of the city were not generally supportive of them in this. As the conference was coming to a close, Thiel wrote, "We blew this WTO gig. Big time. Because our civic ego ran amok. […] Somewhere, somehow, there has been created a profound disconnect between our wealth-enamored leadership and the vast majority of Puget Sound-area residents. […] [T]here was no debate on WTO, only a wink and a pat on the head from the poobahs."^[1]

A feature film, titled Battle in Seattle, is based on the riots and will be released in September 2008. It stars Charlize Theron, Woody Harrelson, Ray Liotta, Michelle Rodriguez, Joshua Jackson, and Connie Nielsen. The name is taken from the colloquial term "Battle in Seattle" for the conference.