John King: Protesters, problems and positions at the G8 summit

John King

GENOA, Italy (CNN) -- CNN Senior White House Correspondent John King accompanied U.S. President George W. Bush to the Group of Eight summit in Genoa, Italy. On Saturday morning, he answered e-mails and phone calls from CNN viewers. The G8 comprises the Group of Seven most wealthy industrialized nations -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States -- plus Russia.

E-MAIL: The press has done a very poor job of reporting why protesters keep showing up, apparently wishing to focus on the small number of violent demonstrators.

JOHN KING: I hope that's not the case. I certainly agree with the point that it is a very small number of the protesters who turn violent. Obviously, when the police clash with them or with a tragic event such as we had yesterday -- the death of a demonstrator -- certainly we have to cover those. I hope we do as good a job as we can explaining why many are here.

Many oppose global trade. They believe that global trade does not have the proper environmental standards to help in poor or developing countries, the proper labor standards, the proper environmental standards, that is a key complaint. There are some here protesting President Bush's positions on global warming, that has been frequent at the past few international forums the president has attended.

Certainly the protesters come to raise legitimate points. In the news business, when things turn violent -- and in this tragic case of someone getting killed -- we have to focus attention on that as well.

E-MAIL: The G8 summit is yet another example of how processes are created for the wealthy and privileged to access more for less at the expense of the underclass. In the U.S., we now enjoy free trade with Mexico, where 40,000 orphaned children now live on the streets homeless. What has free trade brought them?

KING: That is one of the recurring themes, and the leaders are increasingly sensitive to it. There was a reception last night in which leaders of some African nations and some other developing nations were brought in to meet with the leaders of the G7. The Group of Seven is the seven richest industrialized countries. So certainly just the name of the group opens it up to criticism. This is the meeting of the rich countries meeting to try to find ways to get more rich, if you will. The leaders are certainly promising to try to do more to help their economies at home.

What President Bush and most of these other leaders would argue is that over time, they believe free trade will help. There is an ongoing debate in the United States over trade with Mexico, for example. The North American Free Trade Agreement was adopted back in 1994. President Bush and some in Congress would argue that over time -- and there's some early evidence that wages in Mexico are beginning to go up -- that the standard of living in Mexico is beginning to go up.

But certainly when there is any economic turmoil -- and we've gone through this in the United States when manufacturing closes down and moves to Mexico because of the lower wages -- whenever there is economic turmoil and turnover, there is a resulting political debate. And when it comes to global trade, that debate is increasingly bitter and unfortunately, sometimes as we see in the streets, sometimes increasingly violent.

PHONE CALL: Why is President Bush so against the Kyoto protocol and what does he see as the problem with it?

KING: What he sees as the problem with it is No. 1, the mandatory reductions that Kyoto would require in greenhouse gas emissions. On the one hand, Mr. Bush argues that right now, because the United States is much more reliant on coal power, Mr. Bush says the United States would be punished, and at the time of an economic slowdown, the United States cannot afford that. That is one argument, a closely held domestic argument that the United States would suffer economically if it adopted the Kyoto treaty.

Mr. Bush also makes a political argument. There was a resolution that went through the United States Senate 95-0 against the Kyoto protocol, so he might also argue that even if he supported it, he could not get it ratified by the United States Senate.

Then there is a third point that this protocol exempts India, China and other developing nations that are becoming the growing source of emissions of greenhouse gases. Mr. Bush says that no treaty that exempts nations like India and China can in the end solve the problem.

E-MAIL: Why don't the leaders use technology such as video conferencing for their meetings? This would not only solve the problems of protesters, it would save the taxpayers in these countries billions of dollars.

KING: That is an interesting point, and perhaps the leaders will listen. The leaders are having a very difficult time trying to figure out how to get the value they get out of these meetings. But let's step aside for a minute. It cannot be such a bad thing that the leaders of the richest nations in the world have a little face time with each other to discuss problems.

But there is a growing disconnect because of the scenes in the streets. The leaders are increasingly sensitive, and we do hear calls -- 'perhaps these meetings should be called off' or 'perhaps they should be held much less formally.'

It is an interesting picture. The leaders justify what they are doing, they say they are doing the right thing. But certainly when you see the leaders, as we have here, strolling into a beautiful 13th-century palace and then the demonstrators out on the streets, jostling with police or even just demonstrating peacefully, the contrast in those pictures certainly puts the leaders in a political predicament. They are trying to find a way to deal with that.

One suggestion is that for next year's meeting in Canada, to have it in a much more remote, much more relaxed, much less formal setting, so that it doesn't set up that contrast.

E-MAIL: What are the protesters protesting about? Can you describe the issues? What do the protesters feel so strongly about that they would risk personal injury?

KING: I don't want to overgeneralize because there are many different themes that we see on the streets, not only here in Genoa but at previous meetings as well. The first time this took on such a grand scale was the World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle in 1999.

If there is one umbrella theme, it's that they are protesting globalization. They believe that the increasing globalization of the economy through global trade, through corporations not only operating in one country but operating all over the world, that that has had a bad effect on cultures and on economies. They believe the rich countries exploit the poor countries, that corporations go into places -- like Mexico, like Latin and Central America, increasingly like Africa and elsewhere -- exploiting low-wage workers.

Those are the key demands. There are other labor unions that come in and say that as trade has expanded around the world, workers in less developed countries -- and less developed also in the sense of their political systems, less democratic -- have been exploited, say through wage and hours standards or no standards.

So labor unions protest that. Environmental groups protest that free trade has led to exploitation of the rain forest and of rivers in sensitive areas of the world. There's no one theme. There are a number of different groups that show up at these meetings. Some are here protesting that they want more money spent in the fight against AIDS.

But if there is one umbrella that unites them, it is this theme of globalization. As the leaders say, globalization is good and in the end will spread the wealth, these protesters say no, it is bad and it hurts those less fortunate in the world right now.

E-MAIL: What comparison issues of issues and solutions can be made between this conference and the previous conferences?

KING: One of the more interesting dynamics in the meetings that I've covered over the past several years is that when President Clinton came to these gatherings, especially in the second term of his administration, the U.S. economy was booming, the European Union was just coming together as an economic force and there were discussions about how the European Union would relate to the United States and other major economies like Japan, which is represented at this meeting.

Now this meeting takes place. No. 1, it's the first one for President Bush, so that is a new dynamic for us who cover him back in the United States. But it also comes at a time when the U.S. economy is just barely growing, just barely on the positive side. Japan has been in recession or on the brink of recession, in and out, for about 10 years. And the European economy is beginning to slow. The Europeans say that's because of the slowdown in the United States. So a very different dynamic, and a greater sense of urgency on the economic front.

In public, because of the protesters, the leaders are trying to talk about AIDS and about fighting poverty. But in their private meetings, there is the concern that there is a ripple effect when large economies, like the United States and Japan and the collective European Union, are all having a tough time. When that happens, the world economy slows down. The leaders are concerned about that, and that is a new dynamic than the most recent meetings over the past several years.