WTO for Dummies
Everything you should know about the WTO
(The WTO an innocent scape goat?!
10 years of WTO: A reason to celebrate?
The World Trade Organization (WTO) celebrated its 10th aniversary on 1.1.2005.
When it was founded in 1995, the WTO claimed that its main mission is to raise living standards worldwide and to ensure full time employment. A decade later it is rather obvious that this organization only has one priority: "encouraging" nations around the world to radically open up their markets to enable MNCs/TNCs huger profit margins.
The result of their policies has been catastrophical.
Especially populations of so called "developing countries" are hit the hardest:
~ While the number of individuals starving around the world was still decreasing 5 years before the WTO was established - that number increased again after 1995. Currently we have 852m individuals starving on this planet;
~ 1.2bn individuals still live in extreme poverty - most of which are women;
~ 2.6bn individuals still have no access to sanitary installments whatsoever.
Congratulations to the WTO?! I think not!
WTO - three very influencial letters
The WTO is next to the Intenational Monetary Fund (IMF) and the WorldBank one of the mightiest Institutions to "promote" neoliberal market policies globally. Its headquater can be found in Geneva; currently it consits of 148 member states, that have signed agreements with the WTO, which cover:
~ goods (GATT - General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade),
~ services (GATS - General Agreement on Trade and Services),
~ and intellectual property (TRIPs - Trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights),
~ as well as agriculture (AoA - Agreement on Agriculture).
GATT - Trade in exchange for environmental destruction and human suffering
The GATT agreement is suppose to increase the trade of goods globally by forcing nations to lower tariffs and prohibit them to restrict the amout of foreign goods imported.
This is a clear disadvantage for "countries of the South": up to 40% of their taxes originate from tariffs. A massive reduction of tariffs consequently leads to a great loss of income for governments effected, which again decreases economic and political freedom.
Messures of governments to protect their local markets and prevent job losses due to increasing competition on global and local markets are blocked and prevented by the WTO. Since the WTO is being dominated by "Western states", they can also choose when to enforce these "rules". Of course the same goes for the IMF and WorldBank.
The environment, employees and the socially disadvantaged are also losing out, because with GATT comes the fight against environmental protection, workers and human rights since they are barriers to more trade and greater profit margins and therefore need to be placed at the bottom of the priority list.
AoA - Aggressive obstruction to self-sufficiency
For years "developing countries" have been flooded with heavily subsidised agricultural imports from "the North", because the Agreement on Agriculture forces them to open up their markets. These cheap imports are often sold below their costs of production (dumping!) and are of very low quality. They are goods that need to be removed from markets of "the North" in order to avoid price destabilisation in "the West", instead they ruin the markets elsewhere. Either these goods are the result of overproduction or the quality (e.g. of meat) is simply too poor to be sold to western customers. Those who profit from such policies are: agricultural corporations, the food industry and the industrial farming sector. It doesn't take much to imagine how local and regional markets are being destroyed this way. Small farmers lose their regular income and are not fit enough to survive. Consequently poverty increases and individuals stream into cities in massive numbers.
All states should have the right to introduce tariffs according to the people's needs.
Small farmers need to be protected from competition with MNCs/TNCs.
The argicultural sector should be excluded from the WTO policies.
GATS - Game over for basic supplies
The GATS demands worldwide liberalisation and privatisation of various services, which includes water supply, education and health sectors. Currently one can still say that these basic supplies are mostly organised publicly and are aimed at the public welfare.
GATS put these public services under extreme pressure, since governmental services are seen as barriers to free trade.
Examples from around the world show that the liberalisation/privatisation of public services always goes hand in hand with job cuts, higher prices and decreasing qualities. But GATS is the key to trades worth billions for many MNCs/TNCs.
In current GATS negotiations one of the things the EU demands is the liberalisation of water markets in "developing countries", so they are open for investments from European corporations. Once GATS agreements are signed it is difficult to reverse these, unless states pay huge sums, so called "cancellation fees".
GATS negotiations need to stop!
Public services should not be privatised!
TRIPs - Protecting "Intellectual property"
TRIPs aims to ensure the protection of so called "intellectual property", e.g. thru patents, copyrights and trademarks. TRIPs slowly enables the possibility to get patents for living organisms. In the end TRIPs results in "the South" having to pay corporations from "the North" all sorts of licensing and patent fees additionally.
Let's take South Africa in 2001 for example. 39 pharmaceutical corporations tried to prevent South Africa from importing generic AIDS drugs (which are cheaper than those sold by the established pharmaceutical industry), since they should purchase overpriced original and patented drugs instead. Not to forget certain seeds, that have been cultivated for centuries in "developing countries", MNCs/TNCs can get patents for with the help of TRIPs. Due to this kind of "eco-piracy" communities are forced to pay extra in order to apply their traditional knowledge.
No matter if agricultural seeds, softwares or medications: more patented "intellectual property" leads to monopolies and higher costs for basic goods.
TRIPs should be abolished or radically reformed.
Traditional knowledge shouldn't be patented; especially no medications and seeds.
WTO and democracy
WTO agreements have deep impacts on domestic political processes, without being democratically legitimate. National regulations are being overruled, avoided and replaced by WTO regulations. For example, the EU keeps negotiations secret and excludes parliaments and the effected public from the decision making process.
How democratic is that? Contrary to that, ministries of trade and the European Commission work closely together with lobbyists actively working for corporate interests.
WTO behind the scenes
On paper all the member states of the WTO are entitled to the same rights, but in fact no decision against corporate interests would be made. "Countries of the North" dominate the WTO. "Developing countries" often just take part with very few delegates in negotiations, sometimes they are not being represented at all. "Developing countries" are usually being excluded from exclusive get-together, so called "green room"-talks, although vital decision are being made. To pressure "the countries of the South" to accept concessions, the "industrialized nations" threaten them with cancellation of developing aid or accusations of supporting "terrorism". This makes it as good as impossible for "developing countries" to resist any demands by "the West".
The WTO needs to be democratized!
Prospects for 2005 - High Noon in Hong Kong?
In 2004 the EU and the USA managed to drag Brazil and India into their boat; in July 2004 an agreement was reached on how to continue with the Doha Rounds. During the WTO conference in Geneva in July 2005 and the 6th WTO Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong in December 2005 "the industrialized nations" will push for:
~ further liberalisation of agricultural markets to support agricultural corporations, without any reduction of export subsidies;
~ further privatisation of public services worldwide (e.g. water, education, health sectors);
~ further drastic messures to reduce trade barriers, which often results in the destruction of local markets, leading to unemployment and reduction of human rights and environmental standards.
Resistance against these neoliberal policies is necessary. Therefore all those who can should show up in Hong Kong to make their resentments towards the globalisation process at its current form heard.
I hope that the negotiations in Hong Kong will fail again, as they did in Seattle (1999) and in Cancun (2003), since that would be a real blow to the neoliberal policies practiced by the WTO.
10 years of WTO is enough!
The economy should be serving humans, not humans serving the economy!
Although the neoliberal policies caused so many problems for so many people, they are either being ignored or downplayed by "industrialized nations". These horrible consequences of their policies are portrayed as being unavoidable, almost like a law of nature.
What those powers promoting neoliberal policies never get tired of is telling the rest of the world, that there are no alternatives! What people often forget is that these politicians promoting the neoliberal idea solely serve the interests of MNCs/TNCs.
Will the real critics of neoliberal policies please stand up! Please stand up!! And get organized!
PS: Here is another interesting article: Playing Chicken: Ghana vs. the IMF
~peace~
