WTO WOW, OK? (The WTO)

Member Name: andyneil

Product:	The WTO
Date:	07/12/00 (31 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Trade does benefit us all

Disadvantages: People don't know enough about it

The WTO is an international fact of life, an institution that has a big impact on our lives without many of us realising or probably caring. It is an institution that is signed up to and one naturally dominated by the West (developed countries). It is this fact which means that it is easy to portray the WTO as a puppet for the interests of America, Europe and Japan. In some sense there is an element of truth to this; LDCs (lesser developed countries) have often been 'forced' to join to gain the benefits of aid. The world bank even ties loans to the implementation of WTO objectives. Way back under Labour in the late 70's, when we went cap in hand to the IMF having become a banana republic without the bananas, our loan was tied to cutting expenditure and selling part of BP (and you all thought Maggie invented that, not Labour), amongst other conditions.

New rounds of trade talks will do us all good; they will stop global stagnation and improve the world economy. One example of this is the CAP in Europe. America doesn't like it, the UK doesn't like it and the poor farmers in LDCs don't like it. Only by global negotiation can things like this be put right; such protectionism does not help anyone. In this instance the USA would clearly benefit but so would small countries who want to export farmed goods. The benefit to the USA or other big nations should not detract from the benefit to others. We in the UK would benefit too as our tax would not subsidise lazy European farmers and our grocery bills would fall too.

Overall global trade is the norm now; we live in a smaller world than we used to. This is taken for granted by many of us - our goods come from round the world, we holiday in new and exotic locations and our culture is spread far and wide, as well as added to at home. Most of us don't think too much about this, we accept it and enjoy it. The WTO and other places like it help maintain and improve this. The new protesters, trying t
o be some sort of global moral arbiter, have got it wrong. Nation states sign up to the WTO, we elect governments, we therefore sign up. We don't need global Swampeys ruining the life and improvements we have got.

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