After the June 13-14 conference on the precautionary principle, Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch will be hosting a workshop on the morning of June 15th two blocks away at the University of Minnesota Law School on a closely related topic, the international harmonization of standards under the WTO and NAFTA. We hope you will spend another morning in the great state of Minnesota to attend this important discussion. We will try to assist all interested parties with another nights accommodation at the Holiday Inn Metrodome.

Lori Wallach, Director of Global Trade Watch, and the staff at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy will lead a discussion focusing on international harmonization under the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). This workshop will be of interest to international nongovernmental organizations, state regulators, educators, and other parties concerned about globalization's impact on domestic regulations and the mechanisms of democratic governance.

"Harmonization" is the name given to the effort by industry to replace the variety of food, product and environmental standards adopted by nations with uniform global standards. The harmonization effort gained a significant boost with the approval of several new international agreements, particularly NAFTA and the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which established the WTO. These pacts require or encourage national governments to harmonize international standards on issues as diverse as truck safety, pesticides, worker safety, community right-to-know about toxic hazards, informational labeling of products, and pharmaceutical testing standards. The pacts also provide powerful incentives for governments to harmonize standards even when they are not legally required to do so. NAFTA and the WTO also set some constraints on member countries' domestic laws by naming certain international standards as the presumptively permissible ones and by establishing binding international dispute resolution processes to enforce NAFTA and WTO rules.

Theoretically, harmonization can occur at the lowest or highest level of public health, worker safety, or environmental protection. Unfortunately, the actual provisions of the WTO requiring harmonization or providing incentives for harmonization generally promote the lowering of the best existing domestic standards. For instance, under the WTO, international standards do not serve as a floor that all countries must meet. Rather, they serve as a ceiling. The agreements provide for the challenge of any domestic standard (federal, state or local) that goes beyond international standards in providing greater citizen safeguards, but contain no provisions for challenging lax standards.

While many of the international institutions fulfilling the harmonization mandate provide few opportunities for citizen input, U.S. law requires that the public be notified and offered opportunity to comment on such policy proposals. Domestic policymaking also must be conducted "on the record," with a publicly-accessible docket and clear avenues for citizen input and participation. When involved in international harmonization activities, however, federal agency adherence to the domestic procedures for openness and public input has been spotty. In a manner both subtle and powerful, the recent international commercial agreements redefine the relationships in policymaking between governments, industry and the diffuse public interest.

The workshop is geared toward raising awareness about these little understood aspects of globalization. Participants will discuss the wide array of harmonization efforts underway and the challenges posed by harmonization for democratic governance and rulemaking.

Please let me know if you are interested in taking part in this important discussion.

Who: Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
What: Accountable Governance in the Era of Globalization: the WTO, NAFTA and International Harmonization of Standards
When: 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Thursday, June 15th
Where: Rare Books Room (385), University of Minnesota Law School 229-19th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55455
(Please, note that the law school is 2 blocks from the Holiday Inn Metrodrome where precautionary principle conference participants will be staying)

Please call if you have any questions about the workshop or the Harmonization Project of Public Citizen. If you plan on attending, please RSVP to Angela Bailey at abailey@citizen.org or 202-454-5126. For more information about international harmonization, visit our website at www.harmonizationalert.org.

Sincerely,

Mary Bottari, Director
Harmonization Project
Public Citizen Global Trade Watch

202-454-5108

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