The interest generated by this conference is natural since the future of the world's economy and the balances will be taken stock of here. The rich countries are trying their best to give a new fillip to the liberal market and have also included areas like environment and labour standard as thrust areas for discussions and subsequent incorporation in the treaty which will anyway focus on the usual issues of subsidies and multi-sector investments.

The WTO has given birth to a global order which does not have any basis in equality. According to figures available with the Hindu Business Line daily, it is being seen that the exports of developing nations have fallen since 1995 compared to that existing before that year while that of the rich nations has grown substantially during the same period.

Since the advent of the WTO, the export prices of agricultural raw material as well as minerals have come down and it is no coincidence that developing nations are the main producers of these products. Obviously, the dangers cannot be minimised.

The two areas which are not related to trade but have been included in the WTO conference agenda are environment and labour standard. The effort had been put into motion in the second meeting of the WTO in Singapore in 1996 but had not been successful because of the resistance by the developing nations. But the rich nations had pegged on and did not take back their demand for the inclusion of the labour standard in the agenda; this despite the decision to let the ILO adjudicate on the twin issues. In fact, the Singapore declaration made it clear that a final word had not been said on the subject.

On October 30, the US proposed that a working group be set up at the Seattle meeting on labour related issues. On the same date, the European Union also adopted a similar motion saying that the WTO and ILO form a joint forum of this issue. Similar labour related issues like the child force, social security, labour standard, mandatory labour and work opportunities have now been proposed to be on the meeting agenda.

Unlike the ILO, the WTO does not care for the rights of the labour force. And it is by using and overemphasising the WTO that the imperialists are trying hard to gain access to the markets of every region. Obviously, in a scenario where the WTO gets an upperhand and becomes the arbiter of global trade, the labour force will be vastly marginalised. The interests of the labour sector can never be protected thus. It is necessary to delink the WTO conference from issues like labour standard.

The US and other imperialists have never done anything to wipe off child labour and improve the quality of labour life. The US, which has not been able to give jobs to all its adult population, cannot be expected to be serious about wiping out child labour.The tears thus being shed are nothing but crocodile's tears. The assault is on the developing nations and let there be no confusion about that.

By trying to include environment as a related issue at the conference, the rich nations are just trying to safeguard their interests by imposing certain restrictions regarding technological advances, something which the developing nations lack. It is this same US which has made a mockery of the environment issues by launching attack after attack on Yugoslavia and at the same time, prevented India from exporting shrimps in the name of green protection. It is thus the same old story of double standards.