Can This Man Save the World?(Mike Moore)(Brief Article)(Interview)

Never mind the business suit; Mike Moore has the look of a brawler. That may be a useful attribute for the head of the World Trade Organization these days. The 52-year-old former construction worker and meatpacker made his way through the ranks of union organizers and the Labour Party to become New Zealand's prime minister. In 1999 he took the post of WTO director general--three months before the Battle of Seattle. As protests raged against globalization, WTO member states tried and failed to start a new round of trade talks. This November, in Doha, Qatar, they'll try again. NEWSWEEK's Christopher Dickey talked with Moore last week at WTO headquarters about the prospects of success and the risks of failure. Excerpts:

DICKEY: If there's a single organization cast as the villain by the foes of globalization, it's yours.

MOORE: Globalization's a trite phrase. A slogan. It's not a policy declared by the WTO or the gnomes of Zurich, or rich people in Davos. It's a process. In fact, many historians argue that trade is a lower percentage of world GNP now than 100 years ago. [The WTO is] 142 members driven by consensus. Everybody has to agree, and then, once governments have agreed, we have this unique mechanism [for arbitration and appeal]... This is where the little guy has some chance. And a lot of people out there think, 'Well, wait a minute, why don't we [include] indigenous rights, human rights, animal rights, other things?' But we can't handle that. We'd become a very dangerous beast if we had all those powers.

So you're cursed for doing too much and too little.

A lot of the scrutiny is good. It makes us better. And some of the critics are right.

Italy's Silvio Berlusconi has suggested the protesters are fronts for a communist resurgence.

The majority have anxieties we should share. Of course people should be saying we should do more about AIDS. Of course we should do more about [Third World] debt. Of course we should focus on issues of the environment, of families... I draw a line between them and those who say, "We're here to stop the ministers' meeting." That's fascist. That's Marxist. Sure, march on the Parliament. But don't burn down the Parliament. That's been done before.