[asia-apec 1353] 10 Reasons to Dismantle the WTO

[bayan]

>Sender: corp-focus at essential.org
>From: Robert Weissman <rob at essential.org>
>Date: Tue, 23 Nov 1999 11:14:14 -0500 (EST)
>
>10 Reasons to Dismantle the WTO
>By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
>
>Add a new constituency to the long list of World Trade Organization (WTO)
>critics which already includes consumers, labor, environmentalists, human
>rights activists, fair trade groups, AIDS activists, animal protection
>organizations, those concerned with Third World development, religious
>communities, women's organizations. The latest set of critics includes WTO
>backers and even the WTO itself.
>
>As the WTO faces crystallized global opposition -- to be manifested in
>massive street demonstrations and colorful protests in Seattle, where the
>WTO will hold its Third Ministerial meeting from November 30 to December 3
>-- the global trade agency and its strongest proponents veer between a
>shrill defensiveness and the much more effective strategy of admitting
>shortcomings and trumpeting the need for reform.
>
>WTO critics now face a perilous moment. They must not be distracted by
>illusory or cosmetic reform proposals, nor by even more substantive
>proposals for changing the WTO -- should they ever emerge from the
>institution or its powerful rich country members. Instead, they should
>unite around an uncompromising demand to dismantle the WTO and its
>corporate-created rules.
>
>Here are 10 reasons why:
>
>1. The WTO prioritizes trade and commercial considerations over all other
>values. WTO rules generally require domestic laws, rules and regulations
>designed to further worker, consumer, environmental, health, safety, human
>rights, animal protection or other non-commercial interests to be
>undertaken in the "least trade restrictive" fashion possible -- almost
>never is trade subordinated to these noncommercial concerns. 
>
>2. The WTO undermines democracy. Its rules drastically shrink the choices
>available to democratically controlled governments, with violations
>potentially punished with harsh penalties. The WTO actually touts this
>overriding of domestic decisions about how economies should be organized
>and corporations controlled. "Under WTO rules, once a commitment has been
>made to liberalize a sector of trade, it is difficult to reverse," the WTO
>says in a paper on the benefits of the organization which is published on
>its web site. "Quite often, governments use the WTO as a welcome external
>constraint on their policies: 'we can't do this because it would violate
>the WTO agreements.'"
>
>3. The WTO does not just regulate, it actively promotes, global trade. Its
>rules are biased to facilitate global commerce at the expense of efforts
>to promote local economic development and policies that move communities,
>countries and regions in the direction of greater self-reliance.
>
>4. The WTO hurts the Third World. WTO rules force Third World countries to
>open their markets to rich country multinationals, and abandon efforts to
>protect infant domestic industries. In agriculture, the opening to foreign
>imports, soon to be imposed on developing countries, will catalyze a
>massive social dislocation of many millions of rural people.
>
>5. The WTO eviscerates the Precautionary Principle. WTO rules generally
>block countries from acting in response to potential risk -- requiring a
>probability before governments can move to resolve harms to human health
>or the environment.
>
>6. The WTO squashes diversity. WTO rules establish international health,
>environmental and other standards as a global ceiling through a process of
>"harmonization;" countries or even states and cities can only exceed them
>by overcoming high hurdles.
>
>7. The WTO operates in secrecy. Its tribunals rule on the "legality" of
>nations' laws, but carry out their work behind closed doors.
>
>8. The WTO limits governments' ability to use their purchasing dollar for
>human rights, environmental, worker rights and other non-commercial
>purposes. In general, WTO rules state that governments can make purchases
>based only on quality and cost considerations.
>
>9. The WTO disallows bans on imports of goods made with child labor. In
>general, WTO rules do not allow countries to treat products differently
>based on how they were produced -- irrespective of whether made with
>brutalized child labor, with workers exposed to toxics or with no regard
>for species protection.
>
>10. The WTO legitimizes life patents. WTO rules permit and in some cases
>require patents or similar exclusive protections for life forms.
>
>Some of these problems, such as the WTO's penchant for secrecy, could
>potentially be fixed, but the core problems -- prioritization of
>commercial over other values, the constraints on democratic
>decision-making and the bias against local economies -- cannot, for they
>are inherent in the WTO itself. 
>
>Because of these unfixable problems, the World Trade Organization should
>be shut down, sooner rather than later. 
>
>That doesn't mean interim steps shouldn't be taken. It does mean that
>beneficial reforms will focus not on adding new areas of competence to the
>WTO or enhancing its authority, even if the new areas appear desirable
>(such as labor rights or competition). Instead, the reforms to pursue are
>those that reduce or limit the WTO's power -- for example, by denying it
>the authority to invalidate laws passed pursuant to international
>environmental agreements, limiting application of WTO agricultural rules
>in the Third World, or eliminating certain subject matters (such as
>essential medicines or life forms) from coverage under the WTO's
>intellectual property agreement. 
>
>These measures are necessary and desirable in their own right, and they
>would help generate momentum to close down the WTO.
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------------

>Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime
>Reporter. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based
>Multinational Monitor. They are co-authors of Corporate Predators: The

>Hunt for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy (Common Courage Press,
>http://www.corporatepredators.org).
>
>(c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
>
>Focus on the Corporation is a weekly column written by Russell Mokhiber
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