Document text
Environmentalists plan protests By PAUL FATTIG Williams resident Joe Serres, a third-year law student at the University of Oregon, plans to make his voice heard. So does Tonya Graham, office manager for Headwaters, an environmental coalition based in Ashland. They are among environmental activists from Southern Oregon who plan to air their concerns in peaceful protest at the World Trade Organization meeting, which begins Tuesday in Seattle. One of their main concerns is what has been dubbed the "Global Free Logging Agreement," which opponents say will expand global consumption of wood products while undercutting domestic environmental laws. "As an attorney-to-be, it's really daunting to me to see our domestic laws threatened," said Serres, who studied the potential impact of the WTO in a law class. "That could result in international laws having priority over domestic law," he said. "For example, a timber company from British Columbia or anywhere could sue if they wanted to get more product." But that is only one area in which the WTO threatens domestic freedoms, said Serres, who is working for the Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center. The WTO also threatens the freedom of citizens in countries around the world. "It's the nature of the WTO that excludes citizen participation," he said. "It has a body of representatives that are very much responsible for setting world trade policies. It sets up an international body where corporations can create their own trade agreements. They then can go to countries with the least barriers." The result is an intensified degradation of the environment worldwide, he said. But Mike Burrill, president of Burrill Resources of Medford and chairman of the Ore-Cal Trade Corp., which manages Medford's foreign-trade zone, says environmentalists have themselves to blame for those concerns. "After the history I have had with it, I would say that a major part of the environmental movement has been going around with blinders on," said Burrill, whose family operated a lumber company in the region for many decades. "They have forced businesses to move offshore to provide the products that are being demanded by the public in this country and elsewhere. "We should conduct business in an environmentally friendly way," he added. "But environmentalists should not come in and stop all business just because it might influence the environment." Environmental activists disagree. They argue that the global logging agreement, which the Clinton administration supports, would eliminate trade barriers that protect the environment as well as workers' rights. It would also stop the current bans on exporting raw logs, they say. "The biggest concern I have is that it (logging agreement) would get rid of tariffs for wood products," Graham said. "It could also affect our laws about recycled paper as well laws created to protect some species." Seattle-bound Kelpie Wilson, director of the Siskiyou Regional Education Project in the Illinois Valley, says the problem doesn't stop with environmental concerns. "This is an undemocratic institution that is going to control many aspects of our lives," said the longtime environmental activist. "I really believe our sovereignty as a democratic nation is threatened. The environmental concerns are part of that." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA