Having failed poor countries in favour of the rich, the WTO now stands accused of failing citizens in favour of corporations. WTO rules, make it difficult for developing countries to nurture their industries in the way that industrialised countries did during their own development. WTO rules have made it impossible for developing countries to protect their small farmers who are unable to compete with large agribusiness and heavily subsidised US and European farmers. WTO rulings on bananas leave impoverished Caribbean farmers competing in the global market with the multinationals that already control most of the banana trade. In theory the WTO stops governments interfering in the smooth running of free trade and everyone is meant to benefit from the economic growth which follows.
Reality is very different.
WTO rules can hamper basic economic development in the world s poorest countries, while actually benefiting richer nations and shoring up profit for Western multinationals. On the one hand, Third World countries are forced to open up their own economies to both products and investment from industrial countries. Undercut by massively subsidised American corn, Oxfam estimates that half a million Filipino farmers will lose their livelihoods. Meanwhile they are told to export to Northern markets, where their products face heavy import charges or whose domestic production remains heavily subsidised with which their products cannot compete. Specific agreements like the WTO s Agreement on Textiles and Clothing were designed to remove Northern country obstacles to imports from developing countries.