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Article: Green Room's Closed Doors Couldn't Hide Disagreements
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- December 5, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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The "Green Room" holds a special place in the history of global
trade talks.
Named after a room at a long-ago trade conference that was
actually green, it's wherever the ministers from the big industrial
powers and a few specially invited smaller countries go to shut the
doors and reach private deals that are then presented to the rest of
the world as a fait accompli.
U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky convened a Green
Room meeting in the Seattle convention center on Friday morning,
thinking the elite group could break an impasse reached by the larger
group of delegates attending the World Trade Organization talks.
It didn't work. Though Barshefsky invited a few other countries ...