seems that the economic definition of efficiency is grossly different from the dictionary one. Today efficiency in business means saving funds by cutting corners and sacking employees. The same is mirrored in the international marketplace. Only the big players are favoured by the WTO’s agreements, everyone else can either be manipulated by multinationals, or left out of the equation entirely.According to my stated criteria, the WTO has failed miserably. The WTO will inform you with much authority that it:1. Administers WTO trade agreements2. Provides a forum for trade negotiations3. Handles trade disputes4. Monitors national trade policies5. Provides technical and training assistance for developing countries and6. Co-operates with other international organisations(WTO Online(3) 1999)Yet it refuses to elaborate on its promise of greater efficiency “ . . . the [WTO] . . . helps to increase efficiency and to cut costs even more because of important principles enshrined in the system.”5, those principles being, to apply a set of rules which are equally applicable to both the most developed world nation and the least; an edict comparable to racing an athlete against a child (Laurel 2000). Dispiriting also, is its passive refusal to expound the three-point system of economic success, accurately summarised into: trade = growth = jobs. A system which fails to acknowledge a constantly transforming world climate, which has (need the WTO be reminded) passed through Alvin Toffler’s Second Wave, a wave which demanded the realisation of an industrial revolution. As of yet, the WTO still demonstrates its failure to recognise that the world’s economy has in fact moved beyond the traditional mercantilist ideals that were so prevalent in its predecessor GATT’s founding, and that a great sum of the world’s profit is now being circulated in info-tech oriented industries (Mitchell 2001). Industries which de...
