20 reasons why the WTO is bad news

SOME WORDS FROM OUR SPONSORS…YEAH, RIGHT.

Some information on why the WTO should be called the WTF Trade Organization. It should also aggravate you enough to want to do something about it….such as: breaking away from the only option that this system gives us and actually be free. Go Dumpster diving, write on walls, cause monetary obstruction for the rich private (excuse me) ahem…bastards who continue to support this and continue to exploit people all over the world for their mere money-making happiness.

So, next time FOX tells you that there is instability in Seattle or Japan because they riot against the WTO…now you will understand what is really behind the destruction of banks, and writing on the walls (A).

I would also like to urge you to support your local Black Bloc.

DAMAGE to the Earth caused from the exploitation of our land…THE AMAZON IN BRAZIL

 20 reasons why the WTO is bad news Current mood: pissed off Category: News and Politics  10 reasons why the world trade system is bad for people and the planet: The principles on which the trade system is based are fundamentally flawed: The trade system pursues growth at all costs, through trade and investment liberalization, and sees economic growth and increasing consumption as ends in themselves. Key principles of free trade, such as comparative advantage and export-led development, have been discredited. The trade system ignores the fact that increasing consumption is depleting natural capital (the environment) on which the global economy is based. Increased trade also means more transport, leading to a loss of natural habitats and biodiversity and negative impacts on local communities. The trade system pays no heed to equity and distribution and does little to promote development and environmental protection.FARMERS CRASH WITH RIOT POLICE”]

  • The trade system is increasing economic instability: The deregulation of financial markets and the revolution in information and communication technology has stimulated massive growth in short-term capital flows, undermining countries’ economies during economic crises and increasing the number of people in poverty. Trade and investment in least developed countries – particularly in Africa – has been concentrated on primary commodities. Because of fluctuating commodity prices in global markets this leads to increased economic insecurity. 

  • The trade system is increasing inequality between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’: The world trade system has increased the wealth of a narrow band of society. The winners have been both the developed countries and the wealthiest people, whilst poor countries and poor people have been increasingly marginalized. The impact of trade liberalization has hit subsistence farmers particularly hard. Trade liberalization does not benefit the majority of the world’s population. 

  • The trade system does not respect the environment: Trade and environmental policies have come into conflict at both the national and international levels. Trade policies are almost always given priority and environmental laws are frequently undermined as a result. The powerful influence of trade concerns has also permeated important climate change negotiations and blocked negotiations on a Biosafety Protocol to regulate the use of and trade in genetically modified organisms under the Biodiversity Convention. 

  • The trade system is increasing inequality between the ‘knows’ and ‘know-nots’: Knowledge – particularly information, communications and biotechnology – is proving to be one of the key assets of a ‘new’ economy. This has marginalized the ‘know-nots’ who have been kept out of the knowledge sector and excluded those unable to share in the knowledge revolution due to difficulties relating to cost, language and literacy. The trade system protects the intellectual property of knowledge-rich companies rather than diffusing knowledge and transferring technology. 

  • The trade system is increasing employment insecurity: The expansion of trade and the growth of incomes in OECD countries has not increased employment in developed countries. The globalization of the employment market and the mobility of companies and capital has also increased instances of firms moving to take advantage of lower wages and weaker labour laws. Threats to relocate also allow companies to force reductions in environmental and social standards around the world. Mergers, acquisitions and corporate restructuring are also increasing employment insecurity. 

  • The trade system is bad for your health and safety: Companies are moving or expanding operations in developing counties where work force health and safety regulations are lower. Occupational disease, injury and death have taken a particularly heavy toll in developing countries due to globalization. Health and safety standards in industrialized countries have been successfully challenged through the WTO. Increased trade is also responsible for increased air pollution. 

  • The trade system pits the weak against the strong: Small companies are expected to compete in the global economy along with the likes of Microsoft, Monsanto and Mitsubishi even though there is a massive difference in both wealth and economies of scale. The influence of transnational corporations in global trade policy is immense and growing. 

  • The trade system has not advanced human development: Because of conflicts between trade and other policies and because Gross Domestic Product (GDP) calculations regard factors such as environmental damage, ill health and crime as positive contributions to the economy, the priority given by most governments to trade, globalization and the pursuit of growth in GDP is contributing to declining quality of life for many people. For example, over the past 25 years, there has been increasing job insecurity, growing global crime, spread of diseases such as HIV, increasing civil unrest, greater traffic and congestion and higher levels of climate changing gases in the air. 

  • The trade system has not relieved poverty: As we reach the end of the Millennium, more than a quarter of the developing world still live in poverty and more than 100 million people in the developed world live below the income poverty line. The trade system is exacerbating this situation, particularly by marginalising the poorest and least influential communities around the world.

    • 10 reasons why the WTO – which administers the world trade system – is also bad for people and the planet:

    1. The WTO is undemocratic: In spite of the one-country one-vote structure of the WTO, powerful countries still wield enormous influence, often determining negotiating agenda amongst themselves, and putting pressure on smaller, poorly resourced countries to conform. The concerns of rich communities, rich people and rich companies all appear to be heard more readily by the WTO than those of the poor. 

    2. The WTO is untransparent and unaccountable: The WTO provides only very limited access for parliamentarians and civil society at large. Dispute settlements and the Appellate Body are conducted in closed sessions, with no public access or external input. The WTO is exempt from conventions allowing greater public access to information. In the past, there have been numerous reports of officials being unable to access information about the activities of their own trade negotiators. 

    3. The WTO is increasing inequality and food insecurity: WTO Agreements – such as the Agreement on Agriculture (AOA), TRIPs and the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures – are increasing global inequality and insecurity (particularly because of their impact on food production and consumption) and favour rich countries and big business. 

    4. WTO rules regard development and social issues as barriers to trade: For example, the EU’s preferential import regime for Caribbean banana farmers – aimed at supporting small scale growers where costs are high because of steep terrain, poor soils and climatic hazards – was deemed incompatible with WTO rules. The long-standing Lome Convention between the European Union and African, Pacific and Caribbean countries is also likely to disappear in the near future, for exactly the same reason. 

    5. WTO rules regard environmental and health issues as barriers to trade: WTO rules conflict with many national laws and practices intended to promote sustainability and protect the environment. Most WTO agreements are based on the premise of sound, scientific evidence which severely limits the application of the precautionary principle. WTO rules have already been used to rule in favor of free trade and against various measures, eg hormone-treated beef and shrimps that are caught using turtle-excluder devices. 

    6. WTO rules regard labels and certification systems as potential barriers to trade: The certification and labeling of environmental and socially acceptable goods (such as timber or paper from well-managed sources and fairly traded products) and products that concern consumers (such as GM foods) could be undermined by WTO rules. 

    7. The WTO is eroding cultural diversity: The WTO TRIPs Agreement allows companies to expropriate knowledge from local peoples in developing countries who, in many cases, have been cultivators, researchers and protectors of plants for thousands of years. The Agreement permits (primarily Northern) transnational companies to claim traditional plant varieties or plant uses as ‘inventions’ that must be respected the world over. Culture could also be further eroded if issues surrounding the entertainment business – for example, films, broadcasting, music and publishing – are included in a new Round of trade negotiations. 

    8. The WTO could undermine multilateral environmental agreements: Multilateral Environment Agreements that have trade components – such as CITES, the Montreal Protocol and the Basel Convention on Trans-boundary Movement of Hazardous Waste – could be challenged under WTO rules. 

    9. The ‘all or nothing’ approach of the WTO: The last Uruguay Round of negotiations was dealt with as a ’single undertaking’. If the EU were to have its way, the proposed Millennium Round would also be negotiated as a ’single undertaking’. This means that many different sectoral negotiations would be linked together and the results either accepted or rejected in their entirety. This can put smaller countries, many of whom do not have the capacity or the opportunity to participate in the full range of negotiations at a severe disadvantage. Thus many developing countries who were opposed to the results of the agriculture and TRIPs negotiations in the Uruguay Round were still forced to accept them or risk being isolated in the global economy. 

    10. Influence at the WTO can be ‘bought’: Subsequent to a $500,000 company donation to the US Democratic Party, the US Government lodged a dispute in the WTO over the EU’s banana import regime. Some of the world’s largest companies are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in the hope of gaining privileged access to key ministerial and other negotiators at the Seattle Ministerial Conference through the Seattle Host Organization. They expect to be able to attend receptions and dinners for heads of states, ministers and delegates with preferential seating.

    SOURCE: http://www.poptel.org.uk/panap/latest/wto10.htm

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    August 28, 2008 / 2:54 am
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