Economic Equity should be valued over Free Trade

I shall continue to the opening argument immediately: Free Trade inhibits the sovereignty of Nations. Given the large amount of countries apart of the WTO it becomes more of a necessity then a choice for a country to join the WTO. The rules set by the WTO are against the use of trade restrictions or subsidies no matter the reason. The only real interest of the WTO is to remove trade barriers between countries. The problem with the motives of WTO is that they give countries the abilities to prevent bills or laws from being passed amongst their trade partners if it inhibits any of their trade interests. Multiple cases have occurred in which many countries tried to pass laws that involved any form of trade restrictions which resulted in immediately being countered by foreign trade partners followed by the vetoing of the law by the WTO hence disrupting the sovereignty of the country and while the WTO claims to promote democracy this act inhibits the democratic process. An example of this scenario occurred when the US passed a label on all exports to state their country origin (this was called the "COOL" labeling) On early December of 2008 the Canadian government asked for consultation with regarding America"s mandatory "country-of origin-labeling" (or C. O. O. L). The labeling gave the obligation to inform consumers on the retail level of the country of origin that purchased commodities came from. This included meats such as beef and pork. The designation of the COOL label stated that in order for beef/pork to be labeled as American had to have been exclusively born, raised and slaughtered in the U. S. This would completely exclude any imported livestock to the U. S water it be for feed or slaughter. Canada claimed that the COOL labeling was a violation of the United States" obligations under the World Trade Agreement. 10 days after the file complaint made by Canada, Mexico and Nicaragua joined in Canada"s consultations. Eventually the US lost the dispute and had to dump the bill. It breeds unfair competition between developed countries and LDC"s An example of this situation occurs in Jamaica. As of 2014 the Jamaican debt counts as roughly 140% of it"s GDP and is listed with a rather low HDI. The government is unable to fund most social programs to the country due to its growing debt to the IMF, the increasing debt has also lead to a rising unemployment and cost of living. The problem with Jamaica"s debt is that it is unable to pay off their creditors by themselves as their debt tremendously outweighed the country"s own GDP making it dependent off of loans made from the IMF. The conditions made that the IMF gives to LDC"s after each loan comes along the lines of breaking down more and more trade barriers previously by the country. Every time that Jamaica removes its trade barriers it is completely outcompeted by foreign importers as the importers are often that of Transnational corporation that can afford to greatly reduce their prices against local sellers whom are unable to meaning that Jamaica becomes more dependent to foreign exporters even if they have a resource in abundance they still gain imports from foreign companies. This has led to a cycle of loans and debt that Jamaica cannot get out of due to the fact that they can only pay off their debts through loans from the IMF while the IMF pressured the country into removing trade barriers that would have previously remained essential to the growth of local industry. The destruction of trade barriers are detrimental when it comes to the economic development of LDC"s as they are forced to compete with far wealthier countries and corporations. Trade Organizations such as the WTO indirectly look after the interests of Developed Nations over LDC"s This graph below compares National GDPs of various countries in comparison to large transnational corporations: The WTO gain the funds for their loans through the donations of various countries. Countries that donate large funds are usually rewarded the most and gain the most benefits under the WTO. The US and various developed countries tend to donate the most to the WTO and benefit the most by the destruction of trade barriers. Now look at the graph above. Here are the countries of origin these corporations have: Wal-Mart: The US Exxonmobil: The US Royal Dutch Shell: The Netherlands BP: The UK General Motors: The US Cheveron: The US Once more you see that all of the TNC"s listed above are from Developed countries therefore showing how the interests of these country"s (whether they are the majority or not) are outweighed by the interests of LDCs" or developing countries. This bias towards developed countries shows how they benefit the most from Free Trade. Henceforth is why Economic Equity should be valued as it causes great disparity between nations. Sources: 1. . http://en.wikipedia.org... 2. . http://www.wto.org... 3. . http://www.wto.org... 4. . http://en.wikipedia.org... 5. . http://www.wto.org... 6. . http://www.foodsafetynews.com... 7. 8. . http://www.tradingeconomics.com... 9. Documentary "Life and Debt" (Link unavailable) 10. . http://hdr.undp.org...