Contemplating the WTO from the Margins

Abstract

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an increasingly powerful and sophisticated organization that is at the center of both the world trade system and what is often posited as the inexorable tide of globalization. Its membership is nearly universal, 1 and unlike international financial institutions such as the World Bank, it has a more democratic governing structure where each nation has a vote and decisions are made by consensus. The vast majority of its Members are the poor and unindustrialized nations of the Third World. Development is always at the center of Southern tier goals, and trade has now been explicitly linked to development. Indeed, there are provisions in WTO Agreements regarding special and differential treatment, and economic development. Moreover, WTO agreements now contain special provisions for least developed countries, many of which are found on the African continent. Notwithstanding these dispensations, the nations of Africa and other small, poor, unindustrialized nations that are on the periphery of the international trade system remain in rather wretched economic circumstances, and they appear set to remain there indefinitely. This essay speaks to the location of these nations within this paradigm and to their prospects for achieving their goals within the contemporary system. It begins with a brief and very general outline of how the trade regime has responded to the needs of Southern tier countries, and then explores how the WTO as an institution bears upon these nations, including an appraisal of how they have fared within an organization that professes to be more democratic. It then turns to development, which is the perpetual benchmark for impoverished nations in the international system and the reason they have endeavored to become part of the international trade regime. This essay then considers the intersection of the neoliberal development paradigm and a WTO ideology that claims it can raise all boats, including the vessel that will finally realize development. The premises underlying both of these theories will be explored, as well as whether these undertakings may ultimately prove impossible to attain. Even if there is commitment and enthusiasm on all sides, it is likely that any good faith emanating from the industrializing world will fade when their domestic constituencies begin pressing for protection.