U.S. manufacturers celebrate WTO failure

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 9/15/2003 12:00:00 AM

Washington — Sunday's collapse of the World Trade Organization talks in Cancun, Mexico, is being applauded by AMTAC, the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition.

Auggie Tantillo, AMTAC's Washington coordinator, said today the breakdown of the negotiations was a "positive development for U.S. manufacturers who want to preserve their investment and presence in the U.S. market."

"We commend the U.S. government for recognizing that no deal is better than a bad deal," he said in a prepared statement. "With more than 2.5 million jobs lost since January 2001, the U.S. manufacturing sector doesn't need any more one-way trade deals."

The talks were supposed to produce a specific blueprint for trade liberalization in all sectors from agriculture to manufacturing, among the 148 member countries of the WTO, which would have assisted in completing the Doha Round late next year.