Most had already proclaimed it dead, and were surprised to learn
that the WTO was meeting in a frenzied attempt to conclude its "Doha
Round" negotiations. The prospects for wrapping up a deal were slim,
and many expected the WTO to lapse quickly back into coma. With the
collapse of the talks, that is precisely what happened.
This
general attitude of pessimism was awkwardly expressed by Pascal Lamy,
General Director of the WTO: "…It is clear we need to move into a more
intensive mode of consultations including smaller configurations".. In
plain English, this means that the deal everybody wants isn’t going to
happen, and that a "we’ll take what we can get" attitude now prevails.
Most
likely, Doha will confirm what everybody already knew: the WTO is
dying. And although keeping a brain dead patient on life support is
sometimes comforting, the plug must be pulled eventually.
The
death rattle has reverberated throughout the ruling class and beyond.
Stark warnings are being broadcasted. The once mighty optimism in the
market economy has turned sour. The Economist, in a most foreboding
tone, had this to say: "It is possible to imagine the world economy
becoming less integrated. It has happened before: the fairly free world
economy of the late 19th century was riddled with protectionism by the
1930s."
And with this we get to the heart of the matter. Like the
UN, itself experiencing terminal illness, the WTO was set-up after WWII
with the intention of managing and minimizing economic disasters and
wars. Above all, these institutions exist to maintain the economic
dominance of the advanced capitalist countries and the capitalist
system itself.
When the economy is growing, this is easier to do.
But when a serious, global recession hits, free-trade is quickly tossed
aside – an "everyone for themselves" attitude takes over. Protectionism
and trade blocs develop, in an attempt to push the effects of the
recession onto someone else.
And while many so-called liberals
will whine about the sacredness of the "democratic" institutions of the
WTO and UN, we must explain the true class nature of these
institutions. The UN is controlled by the Security Council – dominated
by many of the same countries that pull the strings at the WTO. It is
illustrative to mention that only 35 countries (out of 153) were
invited to the current WTO negotiations.
Even though every member
country has a veto vote in the WTO, the poor countries know their
place. After the last WTO talks collapsed, the poorer countries that
rejected submissiveness were subsequently threatened by U.S.
politicians, who made it clear that they would be forbidden access to
the all-powerful U.S. market. Similar threats, though usually made
behind the scenes, are the basis for this institution of "democracy".
But
even this has its limits. The nations that have traditionally ruled the
world with an iron first are losing their ability to intimidate and
control the others. A bloc of developing countries – China, India,
Brazil, South Africa, etc – have used the WTO as a venue to flex their
growing muscles. China in particular is using the WTO to expand its
power at the expense of its rivals. The NY Times agrees: "The [WTO]
discussions in Geneva have confirmed that the balance of power in
global trade has shifted irrevocably with the rise of China." The old
powers – Europe, the U.S., Japan, etc. – are seeing their supremacy
slip away; they are the ones who are abandoning the WTO for what they
desperately hope will be the calmer waters of bi-lateral and regional
free-trade agreements.
These kinds of free-trade agreements now
account for more than half of the world’s trade. The crisis of the WTO
has only accelerated this process, which has the effect of making an
already-slumping world economy worse while heightening tensions between
nations that were already strained.
The
giant corporations – themselves owned by billionaires – are the ones
quickly driving the world towards greater and more destructive trade
wars and military confrontations. The international institutions of
stability that the mega-rich created for themselves – WTO, UN, IMF,
World Bank, etc. – have been discredited or are self destructing. This
is because the the crisis of the world capitalist system is causing the
balance of power between countries to shift dramatically. Historically,
the process of "re-organization" has led to war, the winners of which
create international institutions to their fitting.
Economic
superpowers do not simply forfeit their power, the basis of which is
rooted in the capitalist economic system. But the system has outlived
its historic usefulness, and threatens to return the world to the state
of barbarism that it assured us could never happen again (the WTO was a
key "insurance" company). Society cannot be run for the private profit
of individuals without these periodic episodes of crisis. Taking
control of social wealth out of private hands is society’s crucial
task, a struggle guided by the ideas of socialist internationalism.
Taken from the American Workers’ International League website www.socialistappeal.org