The report is one of the last major pieces of information prepared by the WTO before its meeting in Seattle next week. The meeting runs from next Tuesday to Dec. 3. A major march sponsored by organized labor is expected to bring 50,000 people downtown next Tuesday. While protests mount, it is hard to argue against the success of global trade. It has grown almost 20-fold since 1950, far outstripping the growth in world gross domestic product.
Trade is freer than ever.
The WTO is an increasingly popular club, having grown to 135 members this year with the admission of Estonia. China is a likely member next year. Almost 30 other countries, including Russia, are in the queue to join. The WTO report says economic conditions are more optimistic than a year ago, when the financial crisis in Asia was in full flower and there was concern about contagion and a deep recession. Disciplined macroeconomic policies and structural reform in the countries most affected by the crisis and open markets played their full role in making possible and supporting the ongoing recovery.