Whose 'world trade' is it anyway?
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.
Criticised by many for setting preferential rules for big business, the WTO also hosted the 'Doha Rounds' of talks at which developing countries negotiated trade terms with the wealthy countries of the world. The emergence of the mega-regional agreements the TPP and the TTIP and the plurilateral negotations of the TiSA have led to the weakening of the relevance of the Doha talks in international trade discussion. Although critical of the Doha rounds, this situation is even worse for developing countries who now find themselves completely marginalised from the new generation of trade agreements and trade rule setting.
|
|