<P> On November 16, two weeks before the conference, President Bill Clinton issued Executive Order 13141--Environmental Review of Trade Agreements, which committed the United States to a policy of "assessment and consideration of the environmental impacts of trade agreements" and stated, "Trade agreements should contribute to the broader goal of sustainable development ." </P> <P> Activists staged a spoof of Seattle's daily paper, the Post-Intelligencer, on Wednesday November 24, inserting thousands of hoax editions of a four - page front - page wrap - around into piles of newspapers awaiting distribution to hundreds of street boxes and retail outlets . The spoof front - page stories were "Boeing to move overseas" (to Indonesia) and "Clinton pledges help for poorest nations". The byline on the Boeing story attributed it to Joe Hill (a union organizer who had been executed by firing squad in Utah in 1915). On the same day, the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development reported: </P> <P> developing countries have remained steadfast in their demand that developed countries honour Uruguay Round commitments before moving forward full force with new trade negotiations . Specifically, developing countries are concerned over developed countries' compliance with agreements on market access for textiles, their use of antidumping measures against developing countries' exports, and over-implementation of the WTO Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs). </P> <P> This ominously foreshadowed the impending conflict of the North - South divide which was to result in the collapse of the forthcoming WTO talks . </P>

Protests against the world trade organization claim that it