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Reporter's Notebook: G8 Summit Protests

Aired July 21, 2001 - 09:31   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(AUDIO/VIDEO GAP)

BRIAN NELSON, CNN ANCHOR: ... latest from the diplomatic and political side of Genoa, which is the site of the G8 summit.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: We have several CNN correspondents covering the meeting and the protests surrounding it. Let's check in now with CNN senior White House correspondent John King, who accompanied President Bush there. He's here to answer your e-mail questions, and he's live from Genoa, Italy.

Hi, John.

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Morning...

(AUDIO/VIDEO GAP)

NELSON: "The press has done a very poor job of reporting why the protesters keep showing up, apparently wishing to focus on the small number of violent demonstrators." What do you think?

KING: Well, I hope that's not the case, and I would certainly agree with Kate's point that it is a very small number of the protesters who turned violent.

(AUDIO/VIDEO GAP)

KING: ... we have to cover those events. I hope we do as good a job as we can explaining why many are here. Many oppose global trade. They believe that global trade does not have the proper environmental standards to help workers in poorer developing countries, the proper labor standards, the proper environmental standards. That is a key complaint.

There are some here protesting President Bush's positions on global...

(AUDIO/VIDEO GAP)

KING: ... come to raise legitimate points. Of course, in the news business, when things do turn violent and when people get hurt, and in this tragic case here last night, someone getting killed, we do need to focus attention on that as well. PHILLIPS: Here's one of the issues, of course, that's been discussed. You've been talking about it, John, all morning. This comes from R. Simpson from Street Orphans International...

(AUDIO/VIDEO GAP)

PHILLIPS: "... privilege to access more for less at the expense of the under-class. In the U.S., we now enjoy free trade with Mexico, where 40,000 orphaned children now live on the streets, homeless. What has free trade brought them?"

KING: Well, certainly that is one of the recurrent...

(AUDIO/VIDEO GAP)

KING: ... some other developing countries were brought in to meet with the leading the G7, the group of seven is the seven richest industrialized countries. So certainly just the name of the group opens it to criticism, that this is the leaders of the rich countries meet...

(AUDIO/VIDEO GAP)

KING... find ways to get more rich, if you will. And the leaders certainly promising to try to do more to help their economies at home.

What President Bush and most of these other leaders would argue is that over time, they believe free trade will help. There has been an ongoing debate in the United States over trade with Mexico, for example, since the North American Free Trade Agreement was adopted back in 1994. Mr. Bush would argue, and many in the Congress would argue, that over time -- and there's some early evidence that wages in Mexico are beginning to go up, the standard of living beginning to go up -- but certainly when there is any economic turmoil, and we've gone through this in the United States, small manufacturing closes down and moves to Mexico because of the lower wages.

Whenever there is turmoil and turnover, there is a resulting political debate. And when it comes to global trade, that debate is increasingly bitter. And unfortunately, as we see in the streets, sometimes increasingly violent.

NELSON: All right. John, let's take a call from Bob, who's in Virginia. Go ahead, Bob.

CALLER: Good morning, Kyra, Brian, and Mr. King. John, let me ask you this question. Why is President Bush so against the Kyoto protocol, and what does he see as a problem with it?

KING: What he sees as the problem with it is, number one, the mandatory reductions that Kyoto would require, mandatory reductions in greenhouse gas eMs.ions. On the one hand, Mr. Bush argues that right now, because the United States is much more reliant on coal power than many, say, the French get most of their electricity from nuclear power, Mr. Bush says the United States would be punished, and at a time of an economic slowdown, he says the United States cannot afford that.

That is one argument, a very closely held domestic argument that the United States would suffer economically if it adopted the Kyoto treaty. Mr. Bush also makes a political argument, that there was a resolution that went through the United States Senate 95 to nothing against the Kyoto protocol. So he might also argue that even if he supported it, he could not get it ratified by the United States Senate.

And he makes a third point, that this protocol exempts India, China, other developing nations that more and more are becoming the largest source, the growing source of eMs.ions of greenhouse gases. Mr. Bush says no treaty that exempts nations like India and China can in the end solve the problem.

PHILLIPS: All right, we're going to go to another e-mail, this one comes from Lyle Johnson, John. "Why don't the leaders use technology such as video conferencing for their meetings? This would not only solve the problems of protesters, it would save the taxpayers in these countries billions of dollars." That's an interesting point.

KING: That is an interesting point, and perhaps the leaders will listen. The leaders are having a very difficult time trying to figure out how to get the value they get out of these meetings. And let's step aside for a minute. It cannot be such a bad thing that the leaders of the largest nations in the world or the richest nations in the world have a little face time with each other to discuss problems.

But there is a growing disconnect because of the scenes in the streets. The leaders are increasingly sensitive to that. And we do hear calls that perhaps these meetings should be called off, or at least perhaps they should be held much less formally.

It is an interesting picture. The leaders justify what they are doing. They say they are doing the right thing. But certainly when you see the leaders as we have here, strolling into a beautiful 13th century palace, and then the demonstrators out on the streets jostling with the police or even just demonstrating peacefully, the contrast in those pictures certainly puts the leaders in a political predicament. And they're trying to find a way to deal with that.

One suggestion for next year's G8 meeting in Canada is to have it in a much more remote, much more relaxed, much less formal setting, so that it doesn't set up that contrast.

NELSON: Much like the spirit of Rambouillet in France, the very first one in 1975.

We got another one for you, John. It comes from Mark Von Till in Green Brook, New Jersey. He says, "What are the protesters protesting about? Can you describe the issues? What do the protesters feel so strongly about that they would risk personal injury?" This goes back to one of our earlier questions, John.

KING: I don't want to overgeneralize, because there are many different themes that we see on the streets, not only here in Genoa but at previous meetings. Again, the first time this took on such a grand scale was the World Trade Organization meetings back in Seattle in 1999.

If there is one umbrella theme, it is they're protesting globalization. They believe that the increasingly globalization of the economy through global trade, through corporations not only operating, say, in one country but operating all over the world, they believe that that has had a bad effect on cultures and on economies.

They believe, many of the demonstrators believe, that the rich countries exploit the poor countries, that corporations go into places like Mexico, like Latin and Central America, increasingly like Africa and elsewhere, exploiting low-wage workers.

So those are the key demands. There are other labor unions that come in and say that as trade has expanded around the world, workers in less-developed countries and less-developed also in the sense of their political systems, less democratic, have been exploited, say through wage and hour standards, no standards. So labor unions protest that.

Environmental groups protest that free trade has led to exploitation of the rain forest and of rivers in sensitive areas around the world.

So there's no one theme. There are a number of different groups that tend to show up at these meetings, some here protesting they want more money spent on the fight against AIDS.

But if there is one umbrella that unites them, it is this theme of globalization, as the leaders say globalization is good, and in the end will spread the wealth, these protesters say, no, it is bad and that it hurts those less fortunate in the world right now.

PHILLIPS: John, D.S. Wall wants to know, "What comparison of issues and solutions can be made between this conference and the previous conferences?" Brian mentioned the spirit of Rambouillet from 1975, which was very successful.

KING: Well, one of the more interesting dynamics in the meetings that I've covered over the past several years is, when President Clinton came to these gatherings especially in the second half, the second term of his administration, the U.S. economy was booming. The European Union was just coming together as an economic force, and there were discussions about how the European Union as a group would relate to the United States and to other major economies like Japan, which is represented at this meeting.

Now, this meeting takes place, number one, it's the firs tone for President Bush, so that is a new dynamic for us who cover him back in the United States, but it also comes at a time when the U.S. economy is jut barely growing, just barely on the positive side. Japan has been in recession now or on the brink of recession, in and out, for about 10 years. And the European economy is beginning to slow, and many of the Europeans say that's because of the slowdown in the United States. So a very different dynamic, a greater sense of urgency on the economic front. In public, because of the protesters, the leaders trying to talk about AIDS and about fighting poverty.

But in their private meetings, they're quite concerned that there's a ripple effect, if you will, when large economies like the United States and Japan and then the collective European Union are all having a tough time. When that happens, the world economy slows down, and the leaders are quite concerned about that, and that is a new dynamic from this meeting than the most recent meetings over the past several years.

PHILLIPS: All right, our John King live from Genoa, Italy. Oh, many issues, and great insight, of course, from John on the G8 summit.

NELSON: Great job, John.

PHILLIPS: Thanks a lot, John.

NELSON: Thanks.

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