May, 2001: Cover Story

By Greg Rushford
Published in The Rushford Report

Neither George W. Bush nor the mobs of anti-globalist protestors quite lived up to their expectations in Quebec City last month

Quebec CITY—-Last month was a good one for Canada. It was less so for President George W. Bush, U.S. trade negotiator Robert Zoellick, and a total waste for thousands of vociferous anti-globalist protestors who came across the border hoping to trash this quaint old French city.

On April 22, Col. Chris Hadfield became the first Canadian astronaut ever to walk in space. The view of Earth was great, he said. The same day, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien also said that he liked what he saw here. The Canadian leader had just successfully concluded the three-day Summit of the Americas, where the leaders of 34 hemispheric countries (except for Hugo Chavez, Venezuela‘s dictator-in-waiting) committed themselves to promote free trade and democracy for the region’s 800 million people. Meanwhile, Canada’s Sûreté du Quebec and the Mounties set a new international model of restraint and discipline by marginalizing the ragtag band of anti-globalist protestors who had vowed to shut down the summit. In short, a bit of (promising) history was made.

Quebec City, of course, is all about history. In 1759, British troops and their fire-bombs famously did what protestors with fire-bombs failed to do in the streets here between April 20-22: take the Plains of Abraham. And in August 1943, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met in the majestic Château Frontenac hotel here to plan the invasion of Italy, thrash out differences over Operation Overlord and the invasion of Normandy, and exchange information concerning atomic energy.

But in his first major appearance on the international stage, U.S. President George W. Bush came across a bit awkwardly, and certainly as a lesser presence than his illustrious predecessors. Nor did Bush’s trade negotiator, Robert Zoellick, cast much of a shadow here.

The problems were of substance and style. Regarding the former, on April 11 Zoellick and and the EU’s trade commissioner, Pascal Lamy, cut out Ecuador from a managed-trade deal to divide up European banana quotas. Ecuador — which like the U.S., had successfully challenged the EU’s banana-import regime as WTO-illegal — was informed of the deal after it had been struck (for details, see the Players column elsewhere in this issue).

This is a big deal to Ecuador, a major banana producer and a country of nearly 13 million people, of which some two million livelihoods depend upon bananas. And to the leaders of other small Latin American countries who came to Quebec City, the episode demonstrated that U.S. arrogance — and ineptness in diplomatic timing — is still very much present in George W. Bush’s Washington. When asked if the USTR would care to defend his banana deal from Ecuador’s vehement accusations that it is clearly WTO-illegal, a Zoellick spokesman did not return calls.

And while Bush and Zoellick came to Quebec City armed with fine phrases of support for free trade and launching a Free Trade Area of the Americas by 2005, everyone here knew that their domestic political position remains weak. Without fast-track negotiating authority from the U.S. Congress, Bush and Zoellick can talk free trade, but they can’t deliver. Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso made it clear in Quebec that until the United States is prepared to get serious about reforming its (abusive) antidumping regime and other protectionist nasties (like the outrageous 50-plus tariff on Brazilian concentrated orange juice that protects the Florida citrus lobby), there was really no reason for Brazil or anyone else to get serious about attacking their own (numerous) protectionist barriers. And Jorge Batlle, Uruguay’s president, unwittingly diminished Bush’s stature even more by asking him what tiny Uruguay could do to help the American president with the U.S. Congress.

Bush’s and Zoellick’s style — or lack thereof — also raised eyebrows.
Rather than mingle with lesser leaders, Bush took over the 400-room Lowes Concord, an awkward box of a building that is perhaps the only hotel in this city of quaint charm that is about as charming as a WalMart. (Bush made clear his preference that he rest the presidential head on 100 percent cotton pillow cases, according to a reliable official source who recounts with glee the panicked search that ensured when the hotel’s laundry workers mixed the Bush cottons with the 60-40 percent cotton-polyester pillow cases for everyone else.)

Mexico’s Vicente Fox, by contrast, did not isolate himself. The charismatic new Mexican president cut a large swathe at the historic ChâteauFrontenac, where he was seen mingling in the lobby and the bar with other Latin leaders. But there were no public signs that Bush had really bonded with any of his peers, which was one of the most important reasons for the presidents to get together.

It didn’t help at one diplomatic function that Bush quaffed his water from the bottle instead of a crystal glass, which rubbed sophisticated Latin manners the wrong way. Nor did the American president distinguish himself when he called Canada’s Chrétien “amigo.” And when First Lady Laura Bush wore a too-tight dress that unfortunately clung between her legs because of static electricity, amused Latins even made sly remarks to reporters about unpolished Texans.
When FDR and Churchill met at the Château Frontenac in 1943, hardly anyone remembers that Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King was also present. But from April 20-22, 2001, Prime Minister Chrétien was clearly the dominant politician at the summit that George W. Bush also attended.

Chrétien displayed his political experience and subtle sense of humor by twice serving Bush potatoes from Prince Edward Island — and then telling reporters that the American president hadn’t keeled over. The United States has an ongoing protectionist ban on the Canadian spuds, which delights the Maine potato crowd but infuriates Canadians.

Chrétien also reminded everyone that the new American president — a Texas oil man at that — hadn’t heard of the Alberta tar sands (said to house larger oil reserves than Saudi Arabia) when the two leaders first talked in February. On April 22, Chrétien told reporters that Bush wants Canadian cooperation to help solve the U.S. energy crisis. Maybe the Americans can stop harassing us on potatoes and our exports of affordable softwood lumber (subject of recently filed U.S. antidumping and countervailing-duty petitions), Canadian journalists opined. Chrétien himself was too diplomatic to suggest anything as crude as a deal on energy in return for free trade in potatoes and lumber.

Speaking of journalists, everyone wondered why Bob Zoellick went out of his way to offend so many of them in Quebec. Before the summit, calls by trade reporters to the USTR’s press office asking about the schedule went unanswered. Then at the summit, Zoellick excluded the working trade press from his only (brief) press conference at a local theater that is better known for featuring an Elvis impersonator. Zoellick must have figured that reporters who regularly cover the White House were less likely than those who follow trade closely to ask him uncomfortable questions.

Zoellick’s aloofness also caused resentment in Latin American journalistic circles because he stiffed them too. These are the very people with direct access to millions of people in the hemisphere who need to be persuaded to overcome their fears of opening their markets to the competitive rigors associated with free trade. This was an opportunity to win important allies by explaining why those fears are unjustified. Zoellick missed it.

The tears in Quebec City, of course, came from the clouds of tear gas that the police had to use to stop rioting protestors who fear free trade. Thanks to strong winds that whipped the gas down the narrow streets of Old Quebec, people were gasping and crying throughout the city. At times, it was like breathing razor wire.
Perhaps the most interesting protestors were the so-called “non-violent” ones, who were portrayed by some in the press as idealistic advocates of democracy.

Right.

The thread that ties the non-violent types to the notorious “Black Block” of black-clad anarchists who advocate violence is the absolute intolerance that each group has for anyone’s ideas except their own. That, and ignorance that is amazing.

It was difficult to find any young person who came to the security fence that protected Quebec City from assault who knew much about international trade. It was easy, however, to find young people who had an affinity for Fidel Castro’s Cuba. Because of Cuba’s tragic human-rights situation, Castro was the only hemispheric leader who was not welcomed by his peers to the summit.

I had a stock question for every “idealistic” young person I encountered: “How high do you think that tariffs in Latin America should be?” After all, reducing average bound tariffs of some 30 percent is one of the driving reasons behind the FTAA.

But the kids didn’t know that. Nobody could answer the question.

Several times, I had to explain that a tariff is a tax on stuff that people buy. Then I would ask, “Do you think that these taxes in Latin American countries that seek prosperity should be higher or lower?”

More confused looks. “This is information you elites keep from ordinary people,” one angry fellow finally offered by way of explanation.

One young man who looked to be all of 20 years old (decked out in the requisite tattered jeans, a black t-shirt with a red bandana covering his entire face, except for the raging eyes) at least came up with an answer. Beside him, an intimidating young woman zoomed in her mini-cam on my press badge to record my identify, unconsciously advertising the kind of people these are.

“Why should I care about tariffs and taxes when free trade is killing millions of people?” the youth declared.

At least there is the hope that — unlike many of the protesters who may never come to understand why trade enriches and empowers millions of people — George W. Bush and Robert Zoellick will grow in office.

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