WASHINGTON -- Former U.S. Trade Representative Carla Hills offered her assessment of why the WTO talks in Seattle ended in failure.

"In Seattle, we saw the manifestation of disagreements that had been building for years. It was labor unions and environmentalists vs. the globalists," Hills said in a recent seminar on new multilateral trade negotiations under the World Trade Organization umbrella.

The former USTR noted that much of the anxiety in the U.S. over globalization has to do with employment, which is reflected in official statistics.