rge and steadily growing volume of real income and effective demand, and expanding the production of and trade in goods and services, while allowing for the optimal use of the world's resources in accordance with the objective of sustainable development, seeking both to protect and preserve the environment and to enhance the means for doing so in a manner consistent with their respective needs and concerns at different levels of development."In addition, the charter of the WTO calls for it to enforce the following fundamental principles: Trade without discrimination. Members are bound to grant to the products of other members no less favorable treatment than that accorded to the products of any other country. Once goods have entered a market, they must be treated no less favorably than the equivalent domestically-produced good. Predictable and growing access to markets. While quotas are generally outlawed, tariffs or customs duties are legal in the WTO. Promoting fair competition. The WTO extends and clarifies previous GATT rules controlling "dumping" (selling goods abroad at below-market prices) and subsidies (governments providing money to make local goods cheaper than imports). Encouraging development and economic reform. Developing countries are given transition periods to adjust to the more difficult WTO provisions. Less-developed countries are given even more flexibility and benefit from accelerated implementation of market access concessions for their goods. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has been in place since the beginning of 1994. A pet project of former President George Bush, NAFTA is a three-way agreement among the United States, Canada, and Mexico designed to encourage trade and commerce throughout the three nations of North America.One World, One Trading UnitThe arguments for free trade vs. protected national economies has been with us since the very beginning of trade b...
