What is the WTO according to the WTO’s website which states that “The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. At its heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world’s trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. The goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business.”
The WTO is portrayed as in organization that protects all countries interest in regards to trade but in actuality it essentially only protects the interest of big corporations and banks. Chomsky speaks on how the WTO emphasizes trade as the superior values and in turn disregards human value. He states that WTO undermines the environment as well as the wealth and prosperity of third world nations. We see this taking place particularly when it comes to food security which is known as the availability of food and ones access to it. The problem with the WTO in regards to food securities is that when the WTO established free trade throughout nations of the world it opens up foreign markets to foreign imports. In countries such as the United States and Europe this is not necessarily a huge problem but for the third world counties. These foreign imports of food which is highly subsidized form the first world creates many problems. Seeing that food such as corn and soy are subsidized food which are produced and thus shipped to the third world. When this food is put onto the markets of the third world it can be sold at a much cheaper price than those who locally grow the same products thus driving local farmers out of the market. These food imports also have negative effects on the environment seeing that it is corporately grow with chemicals, and then shipped to other countries to be sold. This process denies the third world from cultivating their own food consequently driving these counties to become reliant on the developed world.
Another major aspect of the WTO that Chomsky speaks on is it negative effect on the world. Seeing that it establishes a one fits all motto. When a regulation is are put into place all counties and their governments must abide to these regulations. One might ask how they decide on what regulations should be established and what ones should not. All nations involved in the WTO are at conferences and listen to speeches on different regulations that should be established. The countries that vote on what regulation become law and what do not are those that have the most trading power therefore any country that is not a major power player will not decide on whether a new regulation should become law. This plays into the hands of those who are in power and remain in power.
Chomsky also focuses on how the WTO promotes privatization as well as deregulation of corporations. It protects the interests of corporations and undermines the values of humanity. We see now a transfer of human rights away from people and into the hands of corporate entities. Corporations where granted the rights of people, thus they became private tyrannies where corporations have more rights than individual people. This is seen when a corporation goes into another country they are looked at as a business of that country and all laws thus apply to it in their favor. With this we see wealth become much more highly concentrated then in the past. Chomsky states the free capital flow undermines democracy and unless a country can control its own capital the decisions on how the country will be run are under the control of international capital.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLWXmUKzZWY
http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/whatis_e.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment