The WTO has Failed Developing Nations

Ten years after the adoption of the Doha Declaration, the "development" round of trade negotiations has merely offered empty promises. In this short op-ed, Aurelie Walker of the Fairtrade Foundation sums up ten ways in which the WTO membership has failed the world's poor. Overtly biased "trade-related issues" such as rich-country subsidies and the ambiguity of trade rules, have been ignored or intensified by the powerful countries. Furthermore, specifically "pro-development" policies such as special treatment and improved access to vital medicines have been deliberately neglected. Even if international trade could indeed be part of an effort to combat poverty, a model of trade that is based on global competitiveness instead of cooperation is certain to fail, Walker argues...More