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Re your article on environmental activists protesting an international trade agreement [NATION, April 27]: I want to point out that the National Wildlife Federation and other like-minded groups aren't antiglobalists. We know that properly balanced trade rules can assist nations in achieving the economic growth necessary to afford environmental progress. But that balance is being forsaken by the Clinton Administration and the World Trade Organization. In ruling against the U.S. law to protect sea turtles in shrimp fishing, the wto ignores its own charter provision that allows actions that protect natural resources. The "enemy" of wildlife and the environment is not free global trade; it is poorly crafted trade policies that sell short the protections in which all citizens of the world have a stake. MARK VAN PUTTEN, President National Wildlife Federation Vienna, Va.
