re blocked by the WTO. It states that it is illegal to ban a product because of the means used to produce it. Even if these products are produced through child labor. The WTO also claims that governments can’t consider non-commercial values like human rights when making decisions about purchasing. (globalexchange) China is now a part of the WTO, despite its record of violating human rights and issuing labor repression. These issues do not concern the WTO. (Sforza, Wallach) In addition to this, multinational corporation’s property rights-patents, trademarks and copyrights are protected by the WTO at the expense of human health and human life. The WTO supports pharmaceutical companies that are against governments who are trying to protect their citizen’s health. On behalf of US drug companies, the US government is trying to block developing countries’ access to inexpensive drugs that would save lives. (globalexchange) For example, Nelson Mandela passed a law that enabled South African companies to produce cheap AIDS drugs. This would pay the countries drug developers and not the WTO. Sforza, Whallach) As a result the WTO has threatened the South African Government with restricting proposed national health laws that would initiate the use of generic drugs. They also threaten to allow domestic companies to import drugs from other countries where the drugs are cheaper. These drugs are crucial to the health of human lives but the WTO is only concerned with money, not the health of the world’s people. (globalexchange)The WTO framework is based on reciprocity and nondiscrimination. This nondiscrimination principal is embodied in the most-favored nation concept. This concept says trade restrictions imposed by a WTO member must be applied to all WTO members, so that every member is entitled to the same treatment a state gives its most-favored trading partner. (Goldstein 378) A states local policies th...
