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deBriefings MAKING SENSE OF THE WTO's AGENDA ing the kind of economy, worldwide, in which the owning class by Peter Montague © 1999 gets to make all important decisions without interference from governments or from anyone else. Today, the key institution of s everyone now knows, the World Trade Organization's the owning class is the corporation, so the aim of the WTO is to Aw Ministerial Conference in Seattle (November 30 __ ensure that corporations are empowered to make all the important to December 3, 1999) was interrupted by protesters who decisions without interference. were mostly peaceful. Over-reaction by local police led to the To put it another way, the main work of the WTO isn't promot- "Battle of Seattle". As an acknowledgment of this over-reaction, ing world trade; it is getting rid of rules made by governments, the Seattle chief of police has now resigned.' rules that restrict the freedom of corporations to make decisions The main goal of the WTO's Seattle meeting was to begin a _ affecting production and labour. Government rules are described new round of international talks: the so-called Millennium as "restrictions on trade", but this "trade" language is a Round, which was expected to last three years. That goal was euphemism for "restrictions on corporate freedom". To sum- thwarted. Emboldened partly by protesters in Seattle's streets, | marise, then, the WTO isn't chiefly concerned with trade; it is Third World envoys to the WTO rejected a new round of talks.’ chiefly concerned with "who gets to decide". When governments So the Millennium Round will not begin, at least not right are weakened, corporations are strengthened. The WTO was set away. Delaying the new talks was a sweet victory for the protest- up to weaken governments. ers and an important assertion of independence by Third World There are two other realities that we need to remember if we countries. But we should not fool ourselves. The WTO is still | want to make sense out of the WTO: (1) the developed countries entirely intact. It was not changed in any fundamental way by _ have exhausted many of their reserves of raw materials; and (2) the protests. More importantly, the goals and the powers of those they have built too much productive capacity, so there aren't who created the WTO remain untouched. enough customers for all the goods they can produce.’ Thus, to The people who created the WTO have one main goal: an inte- —_ maintain reasonably profitable operations, corporations need to grated global economy unencumbered by government restric- —_ mine the Third World's raw materials and they need to sell goods tions. The globalisation of the world's economies is proceeding _ and services to people in the Third World. steadily and cannot be stopped. The world's economies are being Take the United States as an example. The US has depleted laced (or yoked) together by communication technologies (radio, _ many of its domestic reserves of raw materials such as petroleum, TV, telephones, fibre optic cables, satellites and computers, chromium, cobalt, manganese, nickel and tin, among others.* among others). A flood of invention is inexorably weaving (or Therefore it is important for US corporations to be free to extract chaining) the strands of the world's economies into a single, huge — such materials from Third World countries and ship them else- network of relationships. where. Furthermore, the US produces far more food each year No one can stop globalisation from happening. However, gov- _ than Americans can eat. So agribusiness corporations need to ernments could take many steps to reduce the harmful conse- “open new markets" in the rest of the world to sell their excess quences for human societies.* Unfortunately, the people who cre- _ production, competing head-to-head with local farmers abroad.* ated the WTO are ideologically opposed to any government When foreign governments are reluctant to import hormone- involvement. They have their own utopian vision: a globalised treated meat or genetically modified corn oil from the United economy unencumbered by government restrictions—global free States, the US agribusiness corporations insist that those govern- trade. Economists have a name for such an economy: J/aissez ments are restricting their corporate freedoms—and so they turn faire. Ina laissez faire economy, the owners of capital are free to to the WTO to whittle those governments down to size. oo make all the important decisions: they decide what to make, how to make it, where to get the raw materials, whom to employ _ Endnotes (under what conditions and at what wages), and where to sell 1. Verhovek, Sam Howe, "Seattle Police Chief Resigns in Aftermath of their products or services. In a laissez faire economy, the role of sores nev i ork mes, December *S en q a ‘Trade End With overnment is limited to enforcing property rights, assuring a sta- - Sahn, Josepn and David E. sanger, “seattle balks on Trade End Wi ble currency, providing a system of justice for resolving disputes Stinging Blow to US", New York Times, December 5, 1999, pp. Al, Al4. wo. ws . A . > 3. Krugman, Paul, The Return of Depression Economics, W.W. Norton, and maintaining a military apparatus to enforce civil and interna- ow York, 1999, ISBN 0-393-04839-X. tional peace. 4. ibid. Government has one other key role in a laissez faire economy. 5, US Geological Survey, Minerals Yearbook: Metals and Minerals 1996, To maintain such an economy, government must relentlessly Volume 1, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1998. thwart democratic tendencies among the governed. If govern- 6. Barboza, David, "Is the Sun Setting on Farmers?", New York Times, ments don't relentlessly oppose democratic tendencies, people | November 28, 1999, pp. Cl, C14. will soon direct their government to (for example) limit the aay . length of the workday, guarantee their right to form a trade union, Editor's Notes: os te ares , . 2S rs * This article by Peter Montague is reprinted from Rachel's Environment & insist that everyone deserves health care, and set minimum Health Weekly, no. 679, December 9, 1999; published by Environmental wages—all of which doom laissez faire. This is why laissez faire Research Foundation, PO Box 5036, Annapolis, MD 21403, USA, tel 1- economies are incompatible with political democracy. Laissez §§8-2RACHEL (toll-free in North America) or (410) 263 1584, fax (410) faire economies do not arise spontaneously and can only be sus- —_263 8944, e-mail erf@rachel.org, website www.monitor.net/rachel/. tained if the state aggressively suppresses democratic tendencies. * For more on the WTO agenda, see Corporate Europe Observatory's two- The WTO isn't mainly about trade; it is mainly about establish- _ part article, "The WTO'Millennium Bug", in NEXUS 7/01 and this issue. NEXUS © 11 FEBRUARY — MARCH 2000