Explain the main criticisms that have been made of the World Trade Organization. (15 marks)

WTO (originally the GATT), is an organisation, set up during the Bretton Woods Conference of August 1944, that attempts to liberalise world trade and prevent a slide to protectionism that was seen during the run up to WW2. While the GATT did manage to remove the majority of tariffs for manufactured goods, it has still considerable work to do at liberalising trade in the service and agricultural industries.

Key criticisms of the WTO include the following:

The WTO has been criticised in terms of its aims and underlying philosophy. In particular, global free trade has been seen to widen economic inequalities by giving dominant powers access to the markets of weak states while having little to fear themselves from foreign competition. Free trade, moreover, gives economies global markets rather than local needs, and tends to place profit before considerations of community, stability and workers’ rights. Wallerstein World Systems Theory!

Environmentalists have made particular criticisms of the WTO, arguing that free trade and economic deregulation tend to weaken environmental protection and preservation. The WTO’s principles fail to take into account the environmental impact of free trade and economic restructuring.

The WTO is often criticised for being undemocratic and for favouring the interests of rich and powerful state. This is evident in a lack of even-handedness, in that protectionist practices in the developed North, particularly in agriculture, have often been tolerated while they have been fiercely criticised in the developing South.

The WTO has also been criticised for being ineffective, in that the task of decision-making in the area of trade practices has often been frustratingly slow. This is evident in the faltering progress of the Doha Round of negotiations, which has been hampered by tensions between Northern and Southern states in particular.