Critics say the new WTO agreement will boost corporations in the US and Europe, not world commerce.
As the World Trade Organization has sealed its first global trade agreement in 20 years during a gathering held on the Indonesian island of Bali, some experts criticize the deal as an effort to boost the US and European corporations, not world commerce.
The WTO�™s agreement urged member states to ease barriers to trade by reducing import duties, simplifying customs procedures and making those procedures more transparent, The Guardian reported.
However, critics say the deal will boost big business at expense of developing nations.
The World Development Movement warned that it was “an agreement for transnational corporations, not the world’s poor.”
“On the positive side, developing countries have forced concessions on to the pro-corporate agenda of the US and EU,” WDM Director Nick Dearden said, as reported by the British newspaper.
�œHowever, those concessions are only the minimum necessary to get through what remains a deal for corporations, not for the world’s poor,” he said. “The aggressive stance of the US and EU means that we have moved only a little, and shows again that the WTO can never be a forum for creating a just and equal global economic system.”
War on Want, a British anti-poverty organization, also condemned the Bali agreement, saying it does not go far enough to help developing nations.
“The negotiations have failed to secure permanent protection for countries to safeguard the food rights of their peoples, exposing hundreds of millions to the prospect of hunger and starvation simply in order to satisfy the dogma of free trade,” John Hilary, executive director of War on Want said, as reported by UPI.
But WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo has praised the deal, saying: “For the first time in our history, the WTO has truly delivered.”
“This time the entire membership came together. We have put the ‘world’ back in World Trade Organization,” he said.
Supporters say the agreement, signed by all 159 member states, could create as many as 20 millions jobs. One think tank in Washington has estimated the gains from the agreement could include an additional $1 trillion added to the global economy.
The WTO was formed in January 1995 after the Uruguay round trade negotiations spanning 1986-94 were completed.
ARA/ARA
Source: Press TV