Under intense pressure by NGOs, the World Bank has recently shown an increased willingness to reexamine their traditional development policies and to listen more closely to people in developing countries about their needs. However, the World Bank is still far from a fully open organization. In 1999, Chief Economist Joseph Stiglitz resigned complaining that he couldn't freely express his opinions in the position. Another problem is that a country's influence in World Bank policy is based on how much money they put in. This means that the Bank is essentially run by the U.S. and Western Europe.
Countries receiving the loans, therefore, have no democratic input into how the money is spent.
Imposition of these rules would empower corporations to constrain governments from setting standards for public health and safety, to safeguard their workers, and to ensure corporations do not pollute the communities in which they operate. Effectively, these rules would handcuff governments' public interest policymaking and enhance corporate control at the expense of citizens throughout the Americas. All the negotiating groups have held meetings at two to three month intervals throughout 2000. Negotiators have laid out the positions of their governments on the nine core issues. As of fall 2000, they are in the process of consolidating proposed text to find points of agreement among the governments.