On Tuesday evening a lorry arrived at Rue Saint-Jean in Quebec and began unloading steel screens ordered by the owners of the shops, boutiques and cafes which line the narrow street. Merchants began fixing the metal cages and sheets of plywood over their windows. McDonald's, a routine target for anti-globalisation protesters, took down its sign. Quebec has become a shuttered city for the Summit of the Americas which takes place in the old French-speaking city this weekend. The 34 Americas leaders, including US President George Bush who arrives today, will meet behind a metal and concrete fence sealing off much of the old city. The goal of the summit is to formulate one of the boldest ideas ever in global commerce - the creation of a free trade area stretching from the Bering Strait to Cape Horn by 2005. This would make North, Central and South America and the Carribbean - excluding Cuba - the biggest world market, with negligible tariffs, quotas, subsidies or other impediments to trade. However, the secrecy with which the summit document has been negotiated has angered trade unionists, environmentalists and pressure groups who say it is mainly a way of making the world safe for McDonalds and Nike as it will chiefly benefit big corporations. Opponents claim a draft version of the agreement enables companies to sue foreign governments to the detriment of citizens.
They point to the fact that under NAFTA, the free-trade agreement between Mexico, the US and Canada, the US hazardous waste disposal company Metalclad was able to take Mexico to court for trying to stop its expansion plans. Fearful of a repeat of violence at recent world trade and economic gatherings, immigration authorities have turned back anti-globalisation campaigners at the Canadian border.
Two Mexican students were refused permission to enter Canada. Other activists face lengthy questioning and the seizure of anti-summit literature.
They have, however, allowed French activist Mr Jose Bove, the militant sheep farmer noted for vandalising a McDonald's in France, to attend a parallel people's summit.
"I don't see myself as a hero but as a symbol of the fight against globalisation," he said.
Tomorrow, the protesters plan a march through the old city streets.
Shopkeepers fear extremists will try to damage premises along the way, as happened at world trade talks in Seattle in 1999.
With great fanfare, police announced on Wednesday the arrest of six Montreal men they said were planning to disrupt the summit with violence.
They put on display stun grenades, smoke bombs, sling shots, steel balls, shields and gas masks seized from the group, which included a reservist and a former soldier.
