[Vision2020] WTO and Wal-Mart

[Tbertruss at aol.com]

PM Thursday, December 15, 2005 

WTO and Wal-Mart 

A controversial World Trade Organization services agreement that will be 
discussed at this week's WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong poses a 
serious threat to state and local authority over land use policy, 
according to a briefing paper released by Public Citizen. 

SARA JOHNSON, sjohnson at citizen.org,
 
http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=2099
 
   Johnson is state and local outreach coordinator for Public Citizen's 
Global Trade Watch division, which has just released the paper "Big Box 
Backlash: The Stealth Campaign at the World Trade Organization to 
Pre-empt Local Control Over Land Use." Johnson said today: "Major big 
box retail corporations have been eyeing the WTO's General Agreement on 
Trade in Services as a way of gutting local zoning and land use laws 
that have kept them out of communities in Europe and the United States. 
... Wal-Mart is just one of the firms that have been lobbying both the 
U.S. government and the WTO on this issue." 

JEFF MILCHEN, jeff at ReclaimDemocracy.org,

http://www.ReclaimDemocracy.org/walmart, 

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20051115/beyond_walmart.php
 
   Milchen directs ReclaimDemocracy.org, a non-profit organization 
focused on restoring citizen authority over corporations. He wrote the 
recent article "Beyond Wal-Mart." Milchen said today: "Big box stores 
often ride roughshod over communities by running their own ballot 
initiatives when a town makes law that corporate executives dislike. Now 
they aim to pre-empt democracy entirely by using the WTO to override 
local decision-making authority. ... We need to recognize that Wal-Mart 
is merely the corporation most efficient at exploiting structural 
problems -- it's the symptom, not the disease. We need root-level 
changes to halt the growth of parasitic corporations like Wal-Mart and 
instead encourage business models that advance democracy, strong 
communities and widely shared economic prosperity." 

STACY MITCHELL, smitchell at ilsr.org, 

http://www.hometownadvantage.org
 
http://www.newrules.org/retail/news_archive.php?browseby=slug&slugid=162
 
   Mitchell is the author of the book "The Home Town Advantage: How To 
Defend Your Main Street Against Chain Stores and Why It Matters" and a 
researcher with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, which has helped 
dozens of cities and towns across the U.S. enact local ordinances 
limiting big box expansion. She said today: "As the tide of communities 
acting to curb big box sprawl swells, Wal-Mart and other mega-retailers 
are now looking to run an end-game around local authority by harnessing 
the power of the WTO." 

JENNIFER ROCKNE, jennifer at amiba.net, 

http://www.amiba.net

   Rockne directs the American Independent Business Alliance, a 
national organization helping communities support independent 
businesses. She said today: "Communities nationwide are organizing 
successfully to resist the proliferation of chain stores and, instead, 
nurturing the development of healthy local economies with primarily 
community-based businesses." 

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy: 
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045 

http://www.accuracy.org * ipa at accuracy.org

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Vision2020 Post by Ted Moffett
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