Emergency care during the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle

Abstract

The World Trade Organization (WTO) was formed in 1995 with an initial membership of 81 countries. It originated with the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade1 (GATT), which, during a 50-year period, provided the first structure for world trade. The WTO now includes 135 countries and 30 observers. President Clinton invited the WTO to hold its 1999 ministerial meeting in the United States. Of 40 potential US sites, Seattle was selected by the White House to be the host city. The first WTO meeting in the United States was important, given the new markets opening in Asia. The meeting, involving thousands of ministers, politicians, and support staff, was scheduled to take place from November 29 through December 3, 1999, at the Washington State Convention Center in downtown Seattle, with some activities scheduled at the large industrial sites of Boeing and Microsoft in the surrounding area. Following the World Trade Center and Oklahoma City bombings and Tokyo's sarin gas incidents, concern about US vulnerability to terrorist attack on home soil had escalated significantly. In September 1996, Congress passed the Defense Against Weapons of Mass Destruction Act,2 the so-called Nunn-Lugar-Domenici legislation, providing for the training of leaders in domestic preparedness in approximately 120 US cities. The training, in a "train the trainer" format, is conducted by the US Army Chemical and Biological Defense Command.