Sacrificing Democracy Established in 1995, the 135-member WTO shifted enormous power from local, state, and national governments to unaccountable international bureaucrats. The WTO can review and penalize any act of any government that in any way compromises its trade rules. Governments must comply. Only national governments are represented in disputes. Citizens' organizations and state and local governments are locked out, even when their interests are at stake.
Proceedings are secret.
Rulings are final and binding. A country that loses a dispute must change its domestic law or pay penalties to keep its law in place. The WTO also shifted enormous power over environmental, health, and safety laws from ordinary citizens to the corporations that dominate global trade. These committees do not include any representatives of public interest groups, and their deliberations are treated as national security secrets. Citizen groups cannot monitor what the USTR is advocating as US policy in international trade talks because we are not allowed in the room with the corporate lobbyists when the decisions are being made.