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It covers every field of economic and social endeavors, including: textiles, agriculture, clothing, telecommunications, banking, government purchases, food sanitation regulations, services, industrial standards and intellectual property. (Americanlands) Although this organization is seemingly beneficial, like all organizations, there are people in the world who oppose it. The following are some of the negativities of the World Trade Organization. The WTO serves only the interests of multinational corporations. It is not at all a democratic institution but its policies impact all of society. (globalexchange) The free-trade promoted by the WTO is really controlled and managed by corporations and financial institutions for their own benefit. (Meyer, Thomas) For example, the US Trade Representative relies on its 17 “Industry Sector Advisory Committees” for information on trade negotiations. This committee ignores input provided by citizens, who are a part of environmental, human rights, consumer and labor organizations. In addition, the meetings are held in secret and requests for information about these meetings are denied. (globalexchange) The WTO is a stacked court. The organizations dispute panels, decide if domestic laws are “barriers to trade” and whether they should be abolished or not. These panels consist of three trade bureaucrats who are not screened for conflict of interest. An example of this was seen in the tuna-dolphin case Mexico filed against the US. (globalexchange) The U.S. Marine Mammal Act placed an embargo on tuna caught by mile-long nets that kill hundreds of thousands of dolphins. Mexico claimed this was a way for America to protect trade by closing markets to foreign competitors and sued them. The law was declared illegal under WTO rules and America eliminated the embargo. (americanlands) A judge on the dispute panel was from a corporate front group that lobbied on behalf of the Mexican government for NAFTA. (globalexchange) The WTO is being used by big corporations to discredit environmental protections, which are said to be “barriers to trade”. (globalexchange) In 1993, America created the US Clean Air Act. A provision of this act required foreign and domestic producers of gasoline to make cleaner gasoline. (Sforza, Wallach) The very first WTO panel stated that this was illegal. (globalexchange) Another issue was the Shrimp-Turtle ruling. The US required toaht foreign and domestic shrimp fishers use nets with turtle excluder devices to protect this endangered species. The lwa was said to be illegal by the WTO. Several Asian nations who did not use these nets were unable to sell their shrimp in the US, therefore sued claiming that the US could not use import bans to influence fishing behavior. The WTO agreed. (americanlands) They are also currently negotiating an agreement dealing with tariffs on wood products. By eliminating these tariffs, the demand for timber would increase and as a result, the process of deforestation would also rapidly increase. (Sforza, Wallach) Another negative aspect of the WTO is that it ignores issues dealing with human rights. This issue if very important when dealing with labor rights. Countries that violate them disadvantage countries that enforce labor rights. Developing countries claim labor standards are a “barrier to free trade” for countries whose competitive advantage in the global economy is cheap labor. Solutions to abused human and labor rights are 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 that are directed to reward corporations who use domestic materials, hire local residents or use environmentally safe practices are illegal under the WTO. California recently created a “Buy California” bill that would have given small local businesses an economical advantage. The states governor vetoed this bill because according to the WTO, it was illegal. Under this organizations rules, developing countries can’t follow the same policies that developed countries follow. One such policy is protecting domestic industries until they are large enough to compete internationally. (globalexchange) How are these countries ever going to develop into their full potential under such unfair regulations? The fact is that free trade is not helping most of the world, therefore the WTO is not working. From 1960 to 1998 the world saw the most rapid growth in global investment and trade. During this time the inequality of trade and investment also grew internationally and domestically. The UN reports that 86 percent of the world’s resources were consumed by the richest 20 percent of the world’s population. At the same time, 14 percent of the world’s resources were used by the poorest 80 percent of the population. By opening countries to foreign investment the WTO worsened these conditions. As a result it is now easier for production to be directed where labor is cheap, the people are exploited and environmental costs are low. First world corporations cut jobs and wages and justify doing so by claiming that they have to in order to be competitive on an international level. (globalexchange) The WTO has created a supranational court system. This system has the power to levy large fines on countries in order to force compliance with the WTO rulings. This replaced national governments with a corporate-backed government system. The European Union has banned beef raised with artificial growth hormones for the past nine years. In reaction to this the WTO declared that this public health law was a “barrier to trade” and should be abolished. (gloalexchange) As a result, domestic governments can’t act in the interest of the public anymore in situations like this and the European Union was hit with $116 million in tariffs on its goods. (Sforza, Wallach) The WTO does have benefits, however, the negative rulings have a very large negative effect on people and governments on a national level. In short what we have in the WTO is a global system of the multinationals, by the multinationals and for the multinationals. Bibliography: BIBLIOGRAPHY Americanlands website. “One World, One Forest” The World Trade Organization. www.americanlands.org. Globalexchange website. “10 reasons to oppose the WTO”. www.globalexchange.com Golstein, Josua. International Relations. 4thed. Longman, New York. 2001 pg 378-379 Meyer, Michael and Thomas, Jeffrey. The New Rules of Global Trade: A Guide to the World Trade Organization. Scarborough, Ontario. 1997 Sforza, Michelle and Wallach, Lori. January 200. “The Case Against The World Trade Organization”. The Progressive Magazine. Word Count: 1301
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