Stephen Clarkson is professor at the University of Toronto and a former Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center.

The World Trade Organization has been in operation for just five years. It succeeded the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and has functioned as a regulator of world trade and adjudication of its disputes. Until recently, its work was relatively unobserved by the public. The Seattle riots in late 1999 have changed all that. Labor and environmental issues and the prospect of predatory globalization have stirred rampant controversy. Stephen Clarkson explains the issues.